Breathless Agony Race Report - 5/1/10

Repost of Andy Green's BA Race Report which sums it up nicely...

May 1st, 2010; Redlands, CA
Team Sub-5 Heads for the Hills!

Breathless Agony is one of those “extreme” endurance centuries that only appeals to a select, masochistic group of cyclists. Last Saturday team Sub-5 was there! ;-)
Coach Perry, Ginger, Lori, Doe, Ryan, Jon, DJ, Rob, Dom and myself lined up at the start a little before 7am, ready for a long day! The weather was perfect for climbing, cool and clear, which was a relief after the stormy forecasts of a few days previous.

B.A. bills itself as “Southern California’s Toughest Century” and the stats are pretty brutal: 115 miles with close to 12,000ft of ascent. There is a loyal group of participants who come back year after year; the field is limited to 500 riders and typically sells out in two days. The route starts and finishes in Redlands, noodles along quiet roads to Beaumont, over Oak Glen to SH38 at Mill Creek, then straight up for 30 miles to Onyx Summit. If you ever take the “back route” to Big Bear, this is the road you use; unfortunately for us cyclists hwy330 is closed for construction and all traffic is being re-directed onto 38, which made for an uncomfortable ride on a narrow, twisty road with RVs and big trucks passing close by.

The ride is configured as a staggered-start time trial; riders check out with the timekeeper at the start line sometime between 6:30 and 7:30am and the clock stops 75 miles (and 11,000ft) later at Onyx Summit. The 40 mile return to Redlands is untimed, allowing for a leisurely descent back down the mountain (ahem… but more on that later)

I have reported on this race in previous years and I apologize to regular readers for repeating myself a little.

Last year I had one of those amazing days that happen every now & then; I felt strong all day and was able to trim more than 20 minutes off my previous best time, so expectations were high this time and I had written down all the marks I needed to hit, locations and times, in order to at least equal my 5:43 finish from 2009. I had calculated the times required for a 5:30 total, but that was kind of a stretch.

My schedule called for brisk riding right off the line and we warmed up our muscles quickly using low gears and high cadence for the first few miles. We were delayed by a train at the crossing on the outskirts of town; fortunately it was only a short wait as most of the train had already passed and the upside was that a large group of antsy riders had collected in front of us. This presented an opportunity that was just too good to miss: the fast guys in this bunch were PO’d about being held up and took off like scalded cats once the crossing opened. All a rider had to do was burn a match to catch this group and then sit in the draft and get pulled along, so that’s exactly what I did! We gathered up quite a crowd on the first little climb at mile 8 and by the time we began the descent to Moreno Valley there were probably 50 riders in the group. We hammered though the flat section of the course, ten miles went by in just twenty minutes!

Then the climbing started with the infamous Jack Rabbit Trail, an unmaintained road that I’m sure the route planners put in as a little joke! It’s only four miles long, with ~1000ft of ascent, but the surface is all broken up and was the cause of many flats and little crashes as riders zig-zag’d around the narrow lane to avoid the worst potholes and sandpits. This picture shows a typical section of the “road”.

I made it through unscathed and hit the first check point at mile 27 right on time, one hour thirty five minutes. I didn’t need to stop for anything so I pushed on straight away to the first major challenge of the day, Oak Glen; The pros ride this route in the Redlands Classic and even they have to use big cassettes! The road climbs for eight miles at a solid 5% grade with occasional pitches to 10%, it gets steeper as you climb; the scenery changes from SoCal scrub at the bottom to pleasant groves of oak trees at the top and there is always a sag wagon near the summit, playing loud rock music to inspire tired riders! Last year I felt really good on this climb but this year, not so much… my legs were a little sore and I had the first twinges of a cramp. However, I was able to maintain zone 4 power levels and crested the climb at 2 hours 25 minutes before starting what, for me, is the highlight of the ride: the descent to Mill Creek! Six miles of mountain switchbacks with no traffic and a good quality road surface… 10 minutes of bicycle nirvana as far as I’m concerned. Yeehaw. A few more flat miles and I rolled into check point 2 at mile 44 after two hours and forty five minutes, with 4500ft climbed; still on schedule. This was another quick stop, just a “splash & dash” before getting back on the road.

The next eight miles of SH38 is lovingly referred to as Damnation Alley; it seems to go on forever, with the sun beating down and the heat reflecting off the road surface:



On paper it’s obviously a climb but when you ride it, it doesn’t look like a hill and you wonder why your legs hurt and you’re moving so slowly. It’s only later, on the way back down, coasting at warp speed that you think “Hmm…”; it’s 6%! My legs were starting to get uncomfortable by this time and power output had dropped to zone 3; food & water wasn’t going down well either and that was a major concern because fuelling is crucial on rides like this. I began to fall behind my time goals.

After Damnation Alley the road makes a U-turn and begins the climb to Angelus Oaks. This is where the ride starts messing with your head; the climb is only four miles long and not very steep (4% average) but it’s a twisty mountain road and it feels much steeper than the alley! Weird…
The road to Angelus Oaks:



I was getting passed with monotonous regularity and wasn’t able to hang on anyone’s wheel, so I ground out the lonely miles to Angelus Oaks and reached the third check point at mile 54 in four hours exactly, ten minutes off my target time. I had to take a break here so I grabbed a soda and some fruit and was able to cram it all down while I rested for five minutes before rolling out for the final twenty miles.

This part of the ride first goes through an area called Barton Flats, twelve miles of rolling road but basically still uphill, with the exception of a steep, one-mile descent immediately before the ultimate climb. I reached the bottom of this hill at 4 hours 50 minutes, crossed over a bridge and began the climb to the finish line.

This final ascent is the reason why the ride is called Breathless Agony; 8.5 miles of relentless climbing takes you from 6300ft to the 8400ft finish at Onyx Summit. The altitude and the effort you already put into the ride start to chip away at your endurance, magnifying any chinks in your armor. My legs were sore, my stomach was rebelling again and refusing input, other riders were passing me and commenting on how good I looked, which is a cycling euphemism for “you look terrible”! Grind it out, keep turning the pedals… power output dropped firmly to zone 2; my 5:30 target time passed with three miles to ride and almost a thousand feet left to climb, then my 5:43 from last year went by, still a mile to go! I was very relieved to see the finish line a few minutes later and my time was recorded as 5 hours, 52 minutes. I had to lie down for a few minutes to stop my head from spinning and I didn’t see Jon cross the line just a minute or so behind me, conquering his first Breathless Agony in under six hours! Way to go, Jon!

Jon Crests Onyx Summit:




We rested and refueled for a half hour and then put on jackets and warm gloves ready for the chilly descent back down to Redlands.

Jon & Andy Check Out With The Reaper Before the Cold Descent:




The first eight miles is easy, just hang on to the bike and let gravity do its business, but remember that one mile descent at Barton Flats? It seemed like _ten_ miles of climbing on the way back! There are several other small climbs on the road back to Angelus Oaks and it seems to take forever to get back to the rest stop at mile 95. It had warmed up at the lower elevation so we stripped off our outer layers and got ready for some fun! There was a team of eight riders in matching kit just leaving the rest stop so we tagged on and hoped that they were fast; they were! The final 20 miles was a blast; point the bike downhill and forget about braking! Damnation Alley, which took 45 minutes on the ascent, flashed by in less than 10 minutes on the way back, with the whole 20 miles completed in 40 minutes. We checked in at the finish line and tucked into the Mexican BBQ provided by the organizers. We were quite hungry, for some reason…

May will be a month of rest and careful training, with the focus shifting to MTB in preparation for 12 Hours of Temecula and the Flagstaff Barnburner endurance events in June.

Ride on!
Andy