breathless agony

May 10, 2006 &bull cycling

I rode “Breathless Agony” last Saturday, which lived up to its name. I drove to Redlands early in the morning and started riding around 6:20am. The first part of the ride was mainly flat, which was a nice warm-up. Things got interesting on Jack Rabbit Trail, which was one of the cooler parts of the ride. It’s this unmaintained road that’s in pretty bad shape. The concrete is completely washed out and, in some sections, non-existent. (In these areas it’s mainly dirt.) I, along with a couple of the guys I was riding with, took off and tried to get over this part of the ride as quickly as possible. I found it was a lot easier the faster I was moving. But, it really split up the ride and, in a way, reminded me of Paris-Roubaix’s Forest of Arenberg. At any rate, it was a challenge to get over the pass without running into someone or tipping over in the dirt.

The next 50 miles was comprised of long, gradual climbs. Everyone I talked to said the second pass, Oak Glen, was supposed to be the toughest climb, but I thought passes three and four were the most difficult — probably because I was on the rivet for most of the ride and towards the end was running out of gas. There were times on the last climb when I thought I was going to have to slow down and start taking it easy. But, I made it and was able to hang with the two guys I was riding with from North County. We made it to the top at 12:11pm, which gave me a total climbing time of around five hours and fifty minutes.

After resting a bit at Onyx Summit, which is around 8,400 feet, we turned around and started heading back to Redlands. This was, for the most part, 35 miles of downhill riding. The mountain/valley views were awesome. It was hard to believe we had gone so far uphill.

It’s tough to say if this ride is harder than the Mulholland Challenge because it’s such a different ride. Mulholland is hard and has a lot of climbing for the full 110 miles. Almost all of the climbing at Breathless is done in the first 75 miles. The climbs feel less steep than Mulholland, but go on forever. The high elevation plays a role in Breathless, too. If we would have had to keep climbing past 75 miles I think this would be a harder ride. Anyway, this was a great ride and I’m totally looking forward to riding it again next year.

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