Reflections

High in the mountains

It’s always nice to reflect whilst travelling back on the highs and lows of these trips, and I know I have a few readers who are considering Colombia as a cycling destination.

This trip with http://www.skedaddle.com is all about the cycling in the mountains. I did about 13,500m of climbing over 935km and those who got up over Alto de Letras did a bit more. It’s fully supported so at any point you can get in the van for a break. All but two of the riders did that at some point. The weather was better than I expected in the mountains and most of us had brought too much cold/wet weather gear with us, expecting it to be more variable above 2700m in the mountains. Maybe we were just lucky. I used a gillet twice and arm warmers once early in the morning. Most of the time I just wore cycling shorts and a thin hot weather cycling top, no base layer.

The hills are generally not steep but they go on for a long time, with 10 to 15km climbs common, as well as the big one at 84km. The roads were very busy most of the time, you cannot be a timid rider afraid of heavy traffic on this trip. The descents were world class, with I think the longest we did at 54km and 2400m of drop. Again, not a trip for riders not confident at descending. The flat sections when we left the mountains on the last few days were tedious, hot and boring, made worse by the ride leader insisting we ride wheel to wheel in a group at quite a fast pace. Frankly I can “time trial style” ride looking at the wheel in front of me anyway: I’d have preferred to use the time here for more interesting riding in the hills.

Breakfast somewhere

Arriving into Cartagena old town

The food was generally very basic, lots of chicken, egg , plantain and rice but enough to fill you up for riding, supplemented by the snacks basket that the drivers provided at all the stops. You have to buy all your own soft drinks and coffees during the stops in the day, but as it’s very cheap here that was generally between 2,000 and 4,000 pesos (50p and £1). Evening meals were also self funded, with our local fixer Tomas organising us at the till of each restaurant to be able to pay individually for what we had eaten and drunk. Not an easy task! Most of the places we stayed were noisy: a noise cancelling headset, or very good ear plugs, is a must to be able to sleep well on this trip. I used my NR headset most nights.

Best days: days 5 and 6, some beautiful climbs and some of the quieter roads on the trip.

Worst days: the last two flat days.

We were fortunate to have a great group of 7 riders on the trip, all very sociable and easy going, and good riders. The trip was a success as no one got Covid and there was only one crash, which resulted in cracked ribs, but that rider was able to continue with the rest of the days, including the big climb. The support from the drivers and our Columbian guide was excellent, but the ride leading on the road of our English guide left a bit of room for improvement in the last couple of days.

Our Colombian guides cleaning the bikes

The Colombian people were extremely friendly, and although very little English is spoken here, with a bit of limited Spanish, and Google Translate, we managed to get by. The mountain scenery is simply stunning, and iPhone photos just don’t do justice to the scale of it. To get a feel for it, this video by the GCN guys on Alto de Letras GCN Alto de Letras with a professional camera crew gives you a really good idea of the sheer scale and beauty. No wonder Colombia produces some of the best pro hill climbers in the world!

Leaving Cartagena