Over the past decade or so, my dad has visited Ecuador
several times and ridden his mountain bike all over the Andes of this country.
My mom has done so, and my brother and sister-in-law did that for their
honeymoon. I have heard countless tales of the amazing rides through Ecuador’s “ring
of fire”, of riding around Cotopaxi (a volcano), the mountain tops around
Quito, and the amazing descent from the volcanic hot-springs town of Banos to
the jungle of Puto. As such, I have dreamed of coming down here to do the same.
When we began planning this trip, I figured it would be unlikely
that I would do any serious mountain biking. All of the above trips were
coordinated with our friend Jorgen in Quito, and Quito isn’t close to Cuenca.
Furthermore, I couldn’t just take off for a few days and leave Shannon and the
boys behind. I thought that perhaps I might rent a bike and try to go out on my
own, and that would be it.
But, to borrow from a favorite old quote, “I’d rather be
lucky than smart”. As I mentioned before, our new friend Diego is an avid
mountain biker – and not just that, he spent his career in the bicycle
industry, working first at Specialized and later with Scott. Diego was at one
point the director of Latin America distribution for Specialized. What are the
chances that the first friend I make in town is him?
Thursday morning, I took the boys to school, met Diego
and went back to his house to prepare for my first mountain bike ride. I had
only packed my bike shorts and a bike jacket on the off chance that I might go
for a ride, so I was rather unprepared. Unsurprisingly, Diego had extra
everything – an extra jersey, gloves, shoes, and of course a bike. And not just
any bike – a bike worth probably 6 or 7 times the value of my own. (The
downside to this, of course, is that having ridden such quality, I am going to
be in the market for a major, expensive upgrade.)
We took off around 9:00 from his house, located
conveniently in the foothills of the Andes, and in less than a mile began our
ascent. Adding to my luck, it was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. Here were
the stats:
Ascent: 575 meters over 4.5 miles (continuous)
Final altitude: 3300 meters (10,890 feet)
Time up: 1 hour 20 minutes (plus a 15 minute break)
Time down: 15 minutes
Riding in Missouri, I’ve gone on fantastic rides through
the woods, with lots of ups and downs, and little flat…but I have never gone on
a continuous uphill like this. We went up, up and kept on going up. The
altitude was a major beast – my legs were strong until the very end of the
ascent, but I had to stop a couple times to catch my breath, and in one
particularly steep and technical spot, I had to walk. Sadly, I did not reach
the peak of the mountain – we ran out of time, probably about 100 meters below
the peak. But that’s okay – there will be more rides!
The views were spectacular, and the ride down was intense
and fun. Can’t wait to get out and do some more!
 |
 |
| This was about a third of the way up. We started down in this valley. |
No comments:
Post a Comment