DELTA — When Ron Kiefel plops down on a stool at Mesa Lakes Lodge looking as done in as the stuffed buffalo head over the counter, the other 1,999 Ride the Rockies cyclists can be certain they are on one bad-to-the-bone climb.
“This is as bad as some of the toughest stages on the Tour de France,” said the seven-time veteran of that famous international event, as he tucked into a wedge of pie.
The 90-mile ride over the Grand Mesa, billed as the world’s largest flattop mountain, was the section most dreaded by participants in this year’s Ride the Rockies.
And it didn’t disappoint.
“It was one of the toughest climbs I’ve ever done,” said Mike Anderson of Denver, who did it with one arm. Anderson lost an arm in a conveyor-belt accident 28 years ago, but he rides one-armed faster than many cyclists with two.
The cyclists huffed and puffed up Monday’s relentless climb, only to find that the worst part of the ride awaited them. Rain, snow, sleet and temperatures in the 30s greeted them at the top.
A Ride the Rockies bus served as a temporary warming hut on the side of the road. Mesa County District Judge Brian Flynn hopped in the bus to cover the toes of his cycling shoes with duct tape for a descent that proved to be toe- and finger-numbingly cold.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this cold,” Flynn said when he pulled into Cedaredge.
The hero of the day was Meg Gresh of Cedaredge. She was out walking when she saw freezing cyclists coming off the mesa. She went home, filled all her Thermos bottles with hot water, grabbed all the tea and hot cocoa in her cupboards, and began handing out steaming cups of what for many was a hypothermia antidote.
A friend and neighbor brought out a camp stove and hit the grocery store for more hot beverages.
“I just saw these people shivering and shaking and thought I should do something,” Gresh said.
The tour rides on to Ouray today.
