Day 2. Another ~45 F start. LIke day 1 I started with my blue woolie, jersey, bull vest, orange wind breaker, blue arm warmers, wool socks, and full finger warm gloves. We, Mike, Charlie, and I started together at 4:39am on the way to Moab. By mile 10ish Mike turned around due to numb feet and hands. I showed a low of 27F This was even before we reached the terrible gravel/broken asphalt washboard road at the UT border. Charlie and I decided that we would recommend against riding this road when the real ride happened. We contacted John Lee and he agreed that for the return we could use the freeway, which we did. It was a bit shorter and had more climbing. We had picked this start time to get to the turn onto La Sal Loop road in time to catch the tail-end of the Moab Grand Fondo so we could take advantage of their 2 SAG stops on the loop, as noted in our cue sheet. On the way, just prior to the La Sal loop Rd Mike and I had stashed 2 gallons of water ( when we drove up on Thursday) under a bush across from the access to JJ's Mercantile, just in case the store was not open when we arrived here on Day 2. The store was open and Charlie and I looked around a bit, used the bathroom, got water and then headed out to the climb. Of course Charlie dropped me like a rock once the climb started. I believe I passed about 40-50 fondo riders and even stopped at the 2nd SAG to get a bit of snacks. I was a long time of climbing, 3 hrs, 10 minutes to go 17 miles and 4,300 ft climbing! This was NOT the start of the descent. There was about 7 miles of rollers until the full descent started. Even getting to the summit was disappointing in some ways as the beauty of the area seemed to be gone and replaced by dead looking flora. I did not stop at the first Fondo SAG but saw 3-4 CA Triple Crown jersey wearers, riders, at the SAG. The summit was cold and cloudy so didn't stay long, just enough to use the john and get a wind breaker on and start heading out on those as yet unknown 7 miles of rollers. Finally the 2nd SAG fondo came and 1 more little roller then an awesome descent on new pavement. That descent went all the way to downtown Moab! It was long, windy, and fast. Got to Wendy's in Moab and grabbed a burger, fries and Root beer. Spent 30 minutes there! Yikes, but I was tired. Then it was heading out on the CO river road where the road was narrow. I did not have much of a challenge with traffic and liked this area, but Charlie thought it was too narrow ( after talking to him in debrief). I used our stash of water, just because and then headed up the hill into a headwind from the NW. UGH. Finally got to the freeway just as sunset came. Then the run of ~45 miles on freeway to home. I reached the house at about 1110pm The new route change meant more climbing at the end and I suffered with that, but the moon was gorgeous as it was just appearing as I neared the freeway exit at Mack. Again, other than the change we did for the freeway instead of ugly road, this is the only change I would make.