by admin | Sep 28, 2015 | Blog
“El Rey de las montañas” is what they call the most famous Colombian cyclist, Martin “Cochise” Rodriguez, who managed some incredible dominance of the Tour de France’s mountain stages in the Sixties. Paisa cyclists have always had the edge in mountain stages, as cycling in Antioquia mandates the exploration (and consequent climbing) of its innumerable hills and peaks. Elizabeth and I selected a route marked “easy” from a local cycling site, 95 km in total, but not the longest distance I’ve ever ridden. Basically, there are two ways to get to the Eastern plateau above Medellín, The Las Palmas Highway and the Medellín Bogota Highway. The former has a nefarious reputation for breaking wills as well as rupturing lungs as its 17 km climb twists and turns along one of the most beautiful views of the city. We opted for the MDE-BOG Hwy route due to its more gradual climb. Unfortunately, we opted to leave at midday, subjecting us to the harsh rays of the sun during our ascent. Elizabeth and I had done hills in the area before, but nothing like this: 2 1/2 hours of solid climbing, with very few changes in the grade. Sweat was pouring out of us faster than we could ingest liquids. We saw some smarter cyclists who had made the ascent early in the morning enjoying the midday sun on their coast back down to Medellín. Every turn we took, I expected to see the summit, only to be disappointed by another switchback, it was pretty miserable. At one point, after reaching a tunnel, we agreed that if we didn’t reach the...
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