Cycling The Globe

Distance: 79.05 km
Ride time: 5:05:23
Average: 15.53 km/h
Max speed: 49.31 km/h
Total: 33528 km

It was still early in the day when I got this message from Neil, the British Round The World Cyclist already at a hostel in Medellin: “I’ve reserved you the last bed but if you don’t turn up I have to pay for it so try not to crash!”.

Thanks 🙂

It was only a 80 km ride from La Pintada to Medellin, but I knew there would be a very long 45 km climb on the way. The pressure was on then.

In fact the climb was not too steep, but it seemed to go on forever. What made up for it was the most spectacular view over the green Colombian Andes mountains you can imagine. I could have stopped at every corner to take photos, but I only did so a few times.

I stopped a few times to eat as well; even on the climb restaurants kept coming with a couple of kilometers between them. No need to carry any water or food then. In this sense cycling in Colombia is easy, although the mountains themselves are certainly challenging enough.

The last five kilometers towards the summit were tough; the road got steeper and the legs were getting tired. Neil had also mentioned a BBQ planned at the hostel at 6 pm. That was a very good motivation to keep going. Once over the top the descend into Medellin was fast and fun.

With an hour to spare before the BBQ would start I checked into the hostel at the city center and had a first cold beer. After a couple of hard cycling days I thought that beer was deserved.

Now it’s time to relax a little.