The ride report from Oleg covered the general details of the ride and the pictures he sent were awesome as usual.

Oleg rode up in Guido’s car with Hodges and me.  He must have taken over a 100 pictures out the window of the car driving up as we viewed the cloud layers and fog levels with the sun shining through.  Oleg captured the scenes wonderfully.  It was quite brisk when we arrived to find Farkas there attending to one of the Borrego Springs Double Century riders who was hypothermic and not feeling well.  He tended to her while we put on all the layers we could find to begin the climb up S2.  It was a gradual 6 mile climb before we had the long descent down San Felipe Road to Route 78.  This intersection was just east of Scissors Crossing where we took the left towards Borrego.  At the turn to Yaqui Pass we stopped to take off some layers before the brief climb up Yaqui.  The narrow canyons and curvy roads provided a great smooth ride down into Borrego Springs.  We stopped at a small park for a  bathroom break and some water in the center of town before heading north on Palm Canyon Road.  John headed out first to try to get a lead on the guys.  I also went out  a bit early in a failed attempt to get some distance between me and the much faster riders I knew were coming when we got to Montezuma.  The 11 mile climb and almost 6% average grade lay ahead.  
The first to blow by me was Rick as he motored up the hill at a blistering pace.  Rick finished 2nd in the timed climb according to Strava, less than a minute slower than our very own Logan Fielder.  This was a great time given the strong headwinds we faced and the cold temperatures we hit as we climbed to the apex of the hill.  Logan rode his KOM time on 15 Jan 2011, the same date a number of other guys also had top 20 times.  There must have been some type of road race that day or large group event that might have helped Logan a bit with his impressive time.  The next to fly by me was Keith who was climbing as strong a ever.  I looked behind me and saw a group of 4 riders working well and closing the gap on me with each passing curve on the road.  I pushed hard to stay in front but the group of Oleg, Voris, Bernie and Bob R sailed past.  The winds picked up and the temperatures dropped.  It was still a beautiful climb.  Guido was next on my wheel and I held him off for a bit before finally losing steam.  I finally crested the last rise and saw the guys up ahead regrouping.  We put on all our cold weather gear again and heading back towards the cars.

The last 6 or so miles back were nice rollers with a descent back to the end of S2.  We were all glad to find the cars and get warm again.  It was a beautiful day and a fantastic route.  It was just about 60 miles and 5,100 feet of climbing.  We will have to do it again soon.  I took a couple of photos on the descent showing the snow on the mountains.  

Here are a few photos-

Rob