We got to chatting with some folks at the lunch stop and asked if they'd take a picture of us. There were lots of thick clouds moving in, but no rain. We decided to remove our windbreakers before starting the Spooner Lake climb.

I really felt great. As I climbed the final grade to Spooner Lake, I thought I really had a shot at a personal best. When I reached the rest stop at the top, I called Andra on the radio and told her I wasn't stopping. It had sprinkled a few times on the climb and I wanted to finish the massive descent before it started raining. The descent from Spooner Lake is long and steep and I generally exceed 40mph (64kph).

As I began the descent everything looked good, but before I was even a third of the way down, I could see the roadway was damp up ahead. I began decelerating and got my speed down to 20mph before reaching the damp pavement. Within a couple hundred yards it went from damp to a raging river and I dropped my speed into the low teens. It had rained so hard that water was flooding across the road and it was thick with a white foam as if someone had spilled laundry detergent on the road. The conditions were extremely dangerous. I got back on the radio and started warning Andra of the abrupt change and not to use her front brake under any circumstances.

My rims got so saturated that it was obvious my brakes were only maintaining my speed and that slowing further or stopping was not possible until the road leveled out more. Now I was really starting to worry about Andra. She didn't have any experience in the rain and I was concerned she'd try using her front brake to more effectively slow her descent. Any hope of setting a record time were gone as I repeated my radio message about the wet road and to avoid using the front brake.

Once I reached a level area, I pulled out to put on my windbreaker. I was soaked to the core. My socks were so wet that water shot out of my biking shoes with each pedal stroke. Eventually Andra made it to the flats and responded on the radio. She had not heard any of my warnings. In addition to navigating several miles of road with running water, a large SUV shot a wave over her at one point that completely doused her.