[music] Speaker: There's no rest for the wicked. Oh,
my day. Riding my bike in Colombia has been a dream for a long, long time and recently,
I was lucky enough to finally make that trip for two weeks of filming for GCN. Seeing as
I was in the neighborhood with a day to spare, I could not resist the chance to try and ride
up one of the world's longest and most mythical climbs, the 81-kilometer Alto de Letras.
Yes, 81 kilometers. It starts right here in the beautiful town of Mariquita, which sits
at 468 meters of elevation. The summit meanwhile, is 3,663 meters. To ride it all in one go
means starting in this subtropical paradise with 30-degree temperatures and high humidity
and ending up in all likelihood in extremely cold and potentially very rainy conditions
on the summit. What that means is my jersey pockets are as
full of clothing as they are of food and there's an awful lot of that in there as well because
it's going to be a long day out. To put it in perspective, of course, to ride up and
down this hill, it's going to be a century, so it's going to be pretty epic. I better
finish off my coffee which professional cycling aficionado should note, comes in a Café de
Columbia cup. Incidentally, actually the coffee inside it
could have come from these very hillsides because Mariquita actually sits at the southern
point in Colombia's famous coffee production triangle.
[music] Speaker: This area is blessed with many, many
mountains. Columbia sits at the northern end of the mighty Andes. Although here, they're
actually split into three distinct branches; the westernmost Cordillera Occidental, the
eastern Cordillera Oriental, and the Cordillera Central in the center, which is where we are
now. While not boasting the honor of having the highest peak in the country, the Cordillera
Central does have more high mountains than its neighbors.
In fact, the lowest pass over it is still 3,299 meters. It is a paradise for cycling,
and no wonder so many of the world's best call Columbia their home. The list of big-name
riders is seemingly endless, topped, of course, by none other than Tour de France winner,
Egan Bernal now, but Mariquita has its own world tour pro now as well. Yes, Andre Avila,
who started this year for UAE team Emirates in his first year as a pro, having won the
baby Giro last year so he's one to watch as well.
Now, the success you think perhaps down to the immense popularity of soccer a sport here
in Colombia, it could perhaps be down to the altitude that many of the riders live and
train and indeed grew up at. Although not [inaudible 00:03:42] , because we're just
at 500 meters remember. For him, and many others, perhaps, is the access to these near-endless
climbs. There's no getting away from it. The gradient
starts as soon as you leave Mariquita [inaudible 00:04:04] my Wahoo, it came in at 10%. [inaudible
00:04:08] back just to shave now, but clearly, Alto de Letras mean business. In the back
of my head, I just can't help but think, "How do you pace an 80-kilometer long climb?" Clearly,
steadily, will be the sensible answer, but then, not exactly what I'm best at.
I do want to emulate some of the Colombian climbing greats albeit the 10 pedal revolutions.
Now, before we get too far up this climb, let's talk about climbing speed, shall we?
The fastest recorded time on Strava is by a guy called Didier Chaparro who's a Colombian
pro weighing in at just 54 kilos. He rocketed up here in three hours and four minutes, which
is an average speed of 26 km/h. Phil Gaimon meanwhile could only manage three hours, 20.
I'm hoping to be somewhere between the two. No, who am I kidding? I haven't had that much
acclimatization time. Also, I'm running Vision Metron 55s as opposed
to the shallower, slightly lighter 40s, so that's probably going to make a difference,
but only those two things. It's all academic anyway because everyone looks slow compared
to Santiago Botero who has the unofficial record up here. He did two hours, 50 in the
Vuelta a Colombia back in 2007, which he then went on to win. Chaparro, Santiago.
[music] Speaker: It turns out I didn't need quite
so much ride food as I thought. Roadside fruit stand. This, a mini-banana, you might think,
is a bocadillo and it is insanely good. Well, we got a bit of less bites from the climbing
as we go through the little town of Fresno. It's got to be said, it's quite a busy road,
this one. Unsurprising, given that it's one of only two paved passes over the Cordillera
Central. There's two more, but they're dirt, so you can't imagine much of this traffic
going over those ones, but cool, little place. No rest for the wicked. Now, have you noticed
I'm keeping in the big ring for this bit just to try and impress everyone. Make them think
that I'm actually Egan Bernal since I'm riding his bike, or at least one like it. One of
the incredible things about riding up a climb this long is seeing the vegetation change.
You might be used to one or two, but we've already left sub-tropical behind. We're amongst
the coffee plantations and pasture land up here.
I think it's going to be the first of a few judging by the fact that we've still got 2,000
meters left to climb. The air is cooler, much, much cooler. Nice trade-off for the fact that
Oxygen is becoming scarcer, [inaudible 00:08:36] good. I think I'm making good progress. Not
exactly an escarabajo, but doing alright. I'm going to take advantage of free-wheel.
Oh, my days. I've been paying close attention to the altitude on my Wahoo.
It's not been particularly inspiring so far and there are so many meters still to climb,
but we have just ticked past quite an important milestone in that, we've just gone through
the equivalent height of Alpe d'Huez. Probably the most famous climb in the Tour de France
and one that was once claimed as being far too short by Lucho Herrera, who is the first
Colombian to ever win a grand tour. He took the Vuelta España in 1987 and he
was part of that first generation of Colombian pros to really make their mark in the cycling
heartland of Europe. They were nicknamed, los escarabajos or beetles because of their
climbing style that you think was honed on roads just like this one. Unfortunately, the
generation that succeeded Herrera's didn't make quite such an impact in Europe. That
was partly because there were no big Colombian pro teams. The Café de Colombia team that
we noded to earlier on, closed its doors as all pro cycling teams inevitably end up doing,
and none, unfortunately, filled its shoes. Plus, a lot of people say that the rise of
EPO in pro cycling effectively wiped out that natural advantage that Colombians have from
living and training at altitude. I just had that last little bit of downhill.
There's three points at which the climb does actually stop and you get a little bit of
respite and it's very, very welcome. Whether or not it's cheating to classify it as [inaudible
00:11:02] climb if you got three descent in it, I don't know. [inaudible 00:11:06] if
that helps you make your mind up. Just [inaudible 00:11:11] parts of high the Stelvio, which
is nice, but I still got 20 kilometers to go and 1,000 meters of elevation gain.
This is a fantastic stretch of road. It's like 4%, so it makes me feel like I'm going
really fast, even though it's not actually very uphill, but good for morale. Last lap
I think. This point, you start really hoping you can trust the numbers. I've got just under
80k on the clock. I'm absolutely hanging. I've been spending a few days at altitude
has made a big difference. I feel a heck of a lot better than I did at the Taiwan KOM
Challenge two and a half years ago. I'm definitely not as fit as I was.
You can see the vegetation changing again. It feels quite high up here, doesn't it? The
scenery is just epic. Santiago Botero's time has just gone. Two hours, 50 minutes in laps.
Just a couple of K shy of the summit. Yes, I know. unfortunately, that's not quite true.
I feel Gaimon's time might have gone as well. I shouldn't have stopped for bananas or miniature
bananas. Bocadillo, which I'm sure means sandwiches. Anyway.
[music] Speaker: I think I can see something resembling
the top now. It's absolutely freezing up here. The top can't come soon enough. I can feel
that tingling, that telltale sign that I'm about to blow my [inaudible 00:13:45]. Hey,
is this it? Come on, wherever it is. I think this might it. My lungs are burning. They're
working overtime. Nothing's coming in, the air is just so thin. I'm not quite.
[music] Speaker: That truly is an epic climb. One
of the absolutely greatest, I'm sure of it. I need an empanada and a [inaudible 00:14:31]
. That truly is a bucket-list climb. There's no other way of describing it. If however,
you are fortunate enough to come out here and do Alto De Letras, just bear in mind that
it is a really busy road, so take care out there. Maybe stick some lights on your bike
and stuff like that because it's busy. There's a lot of lorries out there, but anyway, you
will undoubtedly love it. It's worth pointing out as well that I think
Columbia has climbs that are far superior to this one even. Maybe not quite so long,
but equally as beautiful, if not more so, and much, much quieter as well. Definitely
Columbia is a bucket list destination for any cyclist. Absolutely fantastic. Keep your
eyes peeled for all the Columbia content that's going to be coming up on GCN in the next few
months. There's some big stuff in the pipeline and
I'm very excited for you all to see it. Please, give this video a big thumbs up and we'll
see you soon. [00:15:30] [END OF AUDIO]