by George Tomasich
The Breathless Agony is a long and hard century. The route includes a dirt road, four passes, and a mountain-top finish at mile 75.
The ride starts in Redlands and winds through a semi-rural area before climbing Jack Rabbit Trail (pass #1, dirt road). Then, after visiting Beaumont, the route heads up Oak Glen Road (pass #2), followed by a descent to Mill Creek Ranger Station.
Here the ride enters San Bernardino National Forest, climbing Mill Creek Road (pass #3), aka Damnation Alley.
After visiting Angelus Oaks, Highway 38 continues on to climb up to Onyx Summit (pass #4, 8,443 feet). From Onyx Summit it is 38 miles back to the start, most of it downhill.
A big group of Canyon Velo fellow riders got together at the starting line, ready to confront these slopes, interminable climbs.
The CV contingent included Danny Davisson, David Stanton, Ralph Bonnin, Glen Wells, John Ritchie, Chris Morris, Chris Bergstrom, Clint Shaffer, & myself (I hope not forgetting anyone)
On a personal note, my efforts on the grueling course were further motivated when I recalled Mr. Charlie Tatarian’s words of encouragement that helped me believe (hopefully) that I could finish the ride in 5 hrs or less…
The weather was perfect, the mountains benevolent, and this fantastic CV crew of mountain goats completed the route way before the day was over… the times put up by our members were truly impressive from a team perspective !!! & True to Charlie’s prediction, I finished in 3rd place overall with a time of 4 Hrs 41 minutes!…
From now on the name of Canyon Velo will be associated with a very exclusive/elite group of “crazy goats” & Breathless Agony Mountain lovers as a result of our strong team showing !!!