Breathless Agony 2009 KOM Stage #2

May 2, 2009 114miles 12,000ft of climbing

http://www.cyclingpros.com/Onyx0904.htm

The weatherman was wrong once again..It didn't rain at all. It was dry, cloudy in the basin and blue sky at Onyx summit. Riders were me, Manny, Mandy, Victor, El Prez, Jun Usi, Jesse A., Richard, Francis,and Reggie Ferraz. Luis Pita signed up but decided to sit this one out. He thought the weather was gonna get ugly plus he was under the weather himself. Next year Luis, rain or shine you better do it.
There were alot of familiar riders. I knew them by their faces, their bikes or Jerseys. Like Steve Gilmore, AGAIN.. On his bike he had a heavy big saddle bag (storage pod) like my lunch box (high tail ulp) that everyone makes fun of, big bento box on his top tube like I have that everyone makes fun of, and a mud guard fender, he thought it was going to rain. He looked like he was doing a double century. Wait, as a matter of fact, that was exactly what he had on his bike during the El Camino Real Double Century. He still passed me like I was standing still. Travis, everyone knows Travis. He was escorting, coaching a rider all the way up to the summit. JJ Lopez from TdFrancis BigBear and Joseph from TdFrancis Frazier Park were there too. Bong from RiverVelo passed by me soo fast on the last 5 miles climb to Onyx as if he was on GMR doing a time trial.
Our Adobo plans were to ride our own pace, eat, load up, stretch and to stay less than 10mins. at each sag stop. Mandy and I started before sunrise. Manny and Victor rode together until Manny warmed up and decided to do his pace and caught up with Mandy and I at mile 15. The rest of the guys started around and after 6:30am. Thank goodness we had gusty 10-30mph tailwind at every climb. That wind felt soo good, I kept praying for more just to get through the climbs.. Wishes came through. It got windier as we climbed higher.
I found myself riding along with the same people the last 20 miles of the climb to onyx. We did the YOYO back and forth riding. "Hey we meet again", "Hey it's you again", " Hi, it's me again", "Oh it's you again." on and on and on. Finally 7000ft elevation. You know what that means, less than 3-4 more miles until the summit but one of the most mentally and physically painful miles to ride. You want to go faster but yet you don't want to cramp up. If you think about cramping, it will happen. If you go any faster, you will cramp before the summit. So what do you do?.. YOYO with other riders and pray you don't cramp up. Thank goodness that didn't happen to me because I was too busy thinking about how great the tailwind was, how beautiful the weather was and how my ass was so sore from sitting on my saddle. The end was not near. There were so many last turns. You think you're there but you're not. When you don't think about it anymore, The last and 4th pass is right in front of you. Alright, time to look strong for the camera. The Grim Reaper awaits and one solo ADOBOvelo Manny at the summit cheering on. Yeah I made it up!! 1:58pm (8hrs10mins) . What an exilerating feeling to finish Breathless Agony. This was one great Century. Last year's breathless agony seemed hard, but this year seems to be a breeze, Ya a strong tailwind breeze.. Great food, great volunteers, great riders sharing their experience of the climb. We waited for the rest of the Adobos. Unfortunately Victor turned around after the 3rd pass. At least he got to taste the ride. Pictures and more pictures at Onyx Summit. The descend was fast and furious even though we had strong head wind. Mandy was stoked he shaved off 40 mins of his time this year from last year. For the rest of the ADOBO guys, great job sub 8 hours total riding time. For your information, the first rider to hit onyx summit in 4hours 43mins is my friend Gina Kelly's husband, Phil Kelly. Gina owns a bike shop in Simi Valley. Both are Ultra distance Cyclists on both road/mountain tandem bikes and solo road/mountain bikes.

Until the next and last KOM, Heartbreak Hundred.. KEEP ON CLIMBING.

-ROSALIE