Thursday Day 5: Anserma to La Pintada 107km 1170m

At last I woke this morning feeling much better and managed to also sleep solidly for about 8 hours. First day since I’ve been in Colombia I’ve woken up after 0600. Breakfast was limited today in the hotel “conference centre” which was a 1970s looking room with a few chairs. Anserma is another bustling town so the ride out to start with needed to negotiate lots of local traffic. The road then meandered uphill but not too steeply following a mountain ridge with great views earthier side, but due to the hazy weather they didn’t really photograph too well. After about 400m of climbing we stopped at a cycle friendly cafe for coffees etc. I’m trying to use a bit of limited Spanish but clearly my accent is totally un-understandable to the locals as I tried with great difficulty to hugest a hot chocolate. However the perseverance paid off with a bowl-like drink eventually appearing. The cafe has quite a few cycling themed display items.

After coffee, a briefing for a long descent. About 35km of down and 1300m of vertical drop followed. This is still a main road we are on across the mountains so lots of hazards to watch out for, dogs when going through towns, and the large trucks coming down the hill too, we actually descent quicker that the trucks so if the road is clear, it’s good to overtake them. But finding the right spot on a bendy mountain road to overtake a huge long truck is a challenge and a bit of a test of nerves. I got past one only for it to overtake me again on a uphill section. The road dropped right down to the Rio Cauco, a huge wide river which is one of Colombias major rivers. Lunch stop was at a rather hot truck stop, the only place around to get food. Food has been fairly standard everywhere, todays was rice, chicken, plantain, and beans.

After lunch we were on a major road that followed the Rio Cauco, full of trucks and buses. The road is undergoing major road works, which turn the road into a gravel track, and there are lots of single file stretches with the traffic stopped on stop/go boards., sometimes for nearly an hour at a time, as the road works stretch many Kms. As cyclist we just went ahead anyway which sometimes meant pulling into the roadworks to let oncoming trucks through. If the traffic was going I the same direct as us, sometimes it squeezed us at pinch points that were only a bus or truck width. This was a hard 40km ish which needed at lot of concentration and, as we were trying to stay together as a group, for me as backstop, quite a lot of hard riding. The conditions were hot, dusty, muddy at times, and the bikes and me looked like we had been cyclocrossing. If you are considering this trip, you need to be confident in heavy traffic and on gravel on your road bike! We all safely made it, though one of the ride leaders punctured on debris in the road. The final 3km was a kick uphill as we rode away from the river to the hotel. We are in a lovely spot tonight overlooking the Rio Cauco valley. With an early finish there’s been time to sort kit and get washing done today.

It’s been a scenic day and I’m relieved to be feeling much better as I thing we have some serious climbing to do again tomorrow. A few pictures today also of our support vehicles, a coach for transfers and kit and the truck for bikes. Yes the truck does have a back board strapped to it for accidents! If you came off on these fast descents it could be really nasty. I can assure you I’m riding within my capability downhill. The descents are so long you can really get into the zone on them, and find some flow and rhythm. Very enjoyable!