I had a couple of allergy attacks as a kid that sent me to the hospital when my family was out camping (we are all allergic to everything). However, it was very sporadic, and the doctors wern't terribly concerned. As I got into high school and cross country, it almost disappeared entierly. My brother OTOH had his own nebulizer (you hook a mask up to it and it pumps some chemicals in mist form into your mout) and 2-3 differnt inhalers (albuteral, ventalin, etc.) at any given time. When I had a problem I just used one of his inhalers, and I was fine (btw our doctor knoew about this and approved).
In college, the freshman 15 turned into the junior 75 and I tried to play ultimate frisbee. I soon found that any exercise induced an asthma attack. I went and visited my brothers specialist who proscribed albuterol for me to take before exercising. My gf moved in and she had a rabbit. I found that being in our apartment could set off my asthma.
I hate being dependant on anything, medicine included, so I kept trying to exercise w/o the albuteral (and live through spring w/o flonase or claratin) and I learned a few things:
1. Slow warm ups (10-15 minutes at ~15 mph) help immensly.
2. Morning exercise is less likely to trigger the asthma (maybe because I am less fatigued?).
3. Being in better physical shape helps (I don't race, so my riding is nowhere near as strenous as yours).
4. Weather below 40 degrees farenheight is the worst.
Nowadays for anything less 50 miles I don't bother with the inhaler. For over 50 miles I carry it with me, but don't need to use it before hand (I average around 18-19mph). 99% of my attacks occur in the winter (probably around 8/year) and I commute by bike 3-4 times a week(year round) and run 2 miles every other day (except in the winter).
I guess all I am trying to say is there is hope, just pay attention to when you have your problems, and you should be able to figure out when you need to use the inhaler ahead of time (the best course).