Tilata Climb

A day after a climb in December 2015 I trekked to the Tilata glacier, but didn´t go any further. Legs were heavy from the previous day´s climb, it was a little foggy higher up, and I thought my climbing buddy was still going to get there if I waited, which didn´t happen. So after a while I went down.
In June this year I was walking/trekking with another person from refugio Huayna towards Tilata, but very soon it was evident that reaching the mountain was not really an option that day.

July 5th I left home at 5.45 in the morning, took a minibus to Plaza Villarroel, and then orange and red cable cars to be in El Alto at 6.31. Next was a short, mile-long taxi drive to a street close to Plaza Ballivian, from where minibuses (at least sometimes) leave towards Zongo. The minibus left at 6.45 and at 8.10 I got out at 4290 meters elevation.

A very steep, grassy slope starts right next to the little road. It felt desperately cold outside after sitting in the minibus, but in 5 minutes it felt ok. The morning was perfect, as usual for this time of year, with blue skies and no wind. I had decided to move fast but without getting lactic acid in my legs. First I followed a little river that has nice waterfalls. Soon I reached a flat meadow where some cows and llamas were starting their day. I got up a little hill to find another flat meadow, and soon there was a third one. All of these would be perfect for camping, because the surface is soft with very short grass. It would be like sleeping on a soccer field with high mountain views.

From 4700 up there was a 200 meters high steep and rocky slope, but it was still easy. Finally before the glaciation starts there is a gentle rise with nice rocks that are almost white. All in all the approach was much easier than I remembered. I got to the glacier at 5015 meters in an hour and a half, with 1.24 of moving time. In 2015 it took 2.22 of moving time.

I didn´t expect Tilata to be the most thrilling climb, but it surprised me in a positive way. Once I arrived at the glacier, there was a frozen pond, and everything else was still frozen as well. This side of the mountain was still in the shadow at 10 in the morning when I started with boots and crampons, after a little break. As this year is a dry one, the glacier was bare and surface was hard ice. I was glad I had sharpened my crampons before this trip, because otherwise it would have been difficult and risky to climb. Low on the glacier there was a quite steep section that offered more challenge than I had expected, given the icy conditions. Then came a not so steep section with very hard snow, and the rest of the slope up until the summit ridge was moderate. The left side of the glacier was very icy all the way up, as I would find out while going down.

The summit ridge started from 5300 meters and led to the top at 5343 meters. The ridge is made up of big blocks of almost white rock. The other side of the mountain was totally free of snow. During snowy years it might be covered.

I was on the summit at 11.22 and was surprised it only took 3 hours 9 minutes total time.
Going down was fast too, even though I had to be careful and slow because of the icy parts. I was back at the road at 1.14 PM so the whole climb took 5 hours and a minute, with about 1050 meters of elevation gain.
After just a few minutes a minibus passed, but it was full so I started walking up the road. 5 minutes later I was surprised to see another minibus coming, and I got the last available seat. I got out while still in the countryside outside El Alto, to walk and run 25 minutes down to the closest Puma Katari (the La Paz city bus) line. I needed two comfy and spacy bus rides to get home. I was at home at 4.15 so this was a quick trip especially considering that I used public transportation, for the first time for a real climb! I would say Tilata is a perfect first-ever climb for someone with at least some fitness, especially when the conditions are good.

Serkhe Kollu 5546 meters in April

On April 19th me, my wife, my brother in law and his friend left La Paz at 5 in the morning aiming to climb the 5546 meters high Serkhe Kollu close to La Paz. It was a Friday and a national holiday. We had rented snow climb equipment for them the day before. This was my second time on this mountain.

We drove to represa Incachaca and took a right there to drive up to 4530 meters on a tiny dirt road that forces the driver (I drove) to concentrate quite intensely. From the top we had to drive down for about 15 minutes to represa Hampaturi, which is at 4270 meters if I´m not wrong. There had been a rockfall, but luckily we were able to drive over the rocks on the road. Then we passed the third and fourth reservoir/represa of the morning, and after maybe an hour and 25 minutes of slow driving we got to the last one close to Serkhe Kollu at 4810 meters of altitude.

The morning was clear and totally calm. I was carrying a thermometer on my backpack, and it was showing about 2 Celsius above zero, but maybe it was too close to me to show the actual air temperature. At about 9 in the morning it got cloudy as we were looking for a spot where to get on the glacier that had steep borders at its low end. But higher we had sunshine and blue skies on our left and dark cloud on the right.

I think it took up to 3,5 hours time elapsed to get to the first glacier. It didn´t rain much during the rainy season, so the mountains are quite bare without much snow. After the first glacier there was a long section of rocky terrain until we got to the second one that leads to the top. The first time I climbed Serkhe Kollu I climbed a much more difficult route on the main face and descended the easier route we were on now. In 2015 there was much snow from about 5000 meters all the way to the top, but now I think the first glacier started at about 5250 meters.

I had been sick 2 times before this climb and was out of shape, so it was actually quite hard for me to get up to the top even at slow pace. Right after the climb I got sick for the 3rd time, and then once more. The route presented some little difficulties on rock. It is much easier if covered with a lot of snow. The steepest parts on the upper glacier might have been 40 degrees which is nice.

The snow was of good quality. It was more firm than soft, but not icy. I was really glad that all 4 of us made it to the top. We were at home 13 hours after leaving.

Yolosa - La Cumbre 2018 and other races

In June I focused on very hard cycling workouts and got in a very good shape but then got sick and didn´t race. In the beginning of September I went to Chile to participate in 2 cross country skiing FIS races. I waited until the last moment to book flights and everything because I had some doubts about the weather there. It looked like it was very warm there but I was told that at least 2 of the planned 3 races would be held. After Olympics race in February I took 2 days off and then skied 14,5 hours in a week. Then once in Bolivia in June.

On my first day in Termas de Chillan I went skiing in classic style but was told that there was not enough snow for making classic style tracks. It was quite difficult to figure out where the loop was because it was basically made on very easy ski slopes for beginners. Higher on the mountain the actual ski slopes were very snowy. From my hostal I had to hitch hike 15 minutes to the ski center, and paid a transportation service to take me back because after one hour of trying to hitch a ride I got a little frustrated. At that time there was almost no traffic going down from the ski center.

On the second day some Argentinians took me to the race site. The race was 10 km skate style on a very icy track with a lot of sharp turns. It was the most difficult or unpleasant skiing I have experienced. In the daytime the snow was totally soft and apparently the track was prepared in the evening. Then in the night it got frozen. Maybe the groomer would not have been available in the morning... I think it was actually a good thing we didn´t have to compete in classic style on that icy track with so many sharp curves, because classic skis are more difficult to maneuver. In this first race I got 4th about 1.50 back. I got a ride back to the hostal on the back of a pick up truck of some skiers.

The third day the Argentinians took me up again. The second race was also 10k skate style. The course was modified from the previous due to lack of snow. There was not much left than a layer of ice. It was really warm and some skiers competed in t-shirts and shorts. I really hope that the next years will be better, with more snow. I got 3rd but again about 1.50 back with a different winner. I expected to be a lot closer to the leaders in both races but with these results achieved my best ever FIS points. I didn´t plan to compete in the final day´s sprint races, which they also managed to organize. I got a ride back with some people who were helping with the race. That night I got to Santiago and spent the night on the floor of the airport and flew back to La Paz the next morning.

On September 16th I did my first cycling race in about 7 months. It was a time trial with all the best cyclist from La Paz area present and I won the 38 minute race by about 40 seconds. A week later I got fourt in a 46 minute uphill cycling race.
On the first Friday of October I swam for the first time in 5,5 months while participating in a local triathlon. It started with a 1000 meter swim in a pool at 3250 meters elevation. In the previous 11 months I had only swam 3 times and managed a time of 15.14 with a wetsuit on, which I was quite happy with. Last year I swam 14.34 while in a decent swimming shape.
The next day included an uphill mountain bike that took about 44 minutes and an uphill run of 40 minutes. These went really well and my bike+run time in the race was 2 minutes faster than the previous year despite now winning by 10 minutes vs 4 minutes last year, with the same person in 2nd place.

October 21 I participated in a 134 kilometer road race close to La Paz. To sum it up: After 52 kilometers I got away from the small front pack to chase 2 strong guys from Oruro. 10 kilometers by myself and the front tide started feeling bumpy and I had to stop. The inner tube was not correctly positioned and was coming out. I had to let all the air out as the pack flew past me. I was inflating the tire when a car came by and they inflated the tire with a floor pump. I lost about 3:30 minutes because of that and ended up time trialing all the way to the finish line by myself and finished 5th only 30 seconds from 3rd place. So the last 82 km I rode hard basically by myself. In addition to the race, I pedaled for 1,5 hours that day.

Then on October 27th was the highlight of the cycling year for many riders: Yolosa -La Cumbre with 3430 meters of absolute elevation gain from 1220 up to 4650 meters. This is the most spectacular race I can imagine, and also the hardest. I had done about 6 weeks of cycling focused training and wattage was better than ever so I was confident.
Last year I was 6th overall. This year I got 3rd with a time of 4.15 that was 14 minutes faster than last year. After about an hour I ended up riding with a guy who has won 100% of the many local uphill races in recent years. With no exceptions. But I was confused because he was supposed to have started 5 minutes earlier as he was in an older category, and I hadn´t even noticed if I had really passed him or if he had missed the start and was actually passing me. I thought it was not possible that I was already 5 minutes ahead of him. But we rode close to each other for maybe 15 minutes and then he fell back.

Foto Edgar Machicado

Soon I reached another very good local rider who had started 5 minutes ahead of me. Only 4 weeks earlier he beat me in a shorter uphill race, but now could not hang at all. I concluded I was having a good day and rode quite hard the first half until the beginning of the paved section. 3,5 hours in I passed the last rider who was still within my reach; looked like the best two riders raced each other extremely hard from the start all the way up. I looked down every now and then and was quite sure that there was no one from the younger category coming within 5 minutes, so I would be 3rd overall. The last 40 minutes it was raining and really cold and I was not able to use my fingers to shift the gears. I think almost all of the participants got to the finish line almost petrified because of the cold rain. After finishing I waited up there for a few hours with my family, waiting for the awards and the rain just continued. It must have been very hard for those who finished in 6 to 9 hours.

Foto Edgar Machicado

Winter in La Paz, Bolivia

The weather here in La Paz from May until the end of August was very cold but I am not sure if it was colder than usual.
Back in January I ordered 3 outdoor thermometers (2 from China and 1 from Hong Kong) and hoped that at least one of them would eventually make it to my living room. In the end I got one of the three. I got tired of going to the post office every month to ask for the other 2 and a book and maybe some other stuff. The answer is always the same "It´s already here but we need to process it. Come back in 2 weeks". The postal service is definitely one of the many negative things about living in Bolivia.
So I started using the thermometer sometime in June. The HORRIBLE TRUTH is that in the mornings the temperature in my living room was typically about 6 or 7 degrees (43F). Typically the temperature would peak at 14 or 15 degrees (58F) in the afternoon. I remember at least one day when the temperature in the living room did not reach 10 degrees (50F). I don´t know how it´s possible to survive that. There is just no escaping that kind of cold.
Suddenly, in the beginning of September the temperatures started to increase. At first 10 degrees in the morning felt like a salvation. Sometimes it was 12 degrees, and in October and November 15 or 16 is the typical living room temperature at about 8.30 in the morning. One time it was as high as 18.
In the daytime the inside temperature has been 18-20 or even 22,5 like today. (Edit: it´s been over 25C inside after writing.) I am typing this in a t-shirt and I´m not wearing shoes. So the conclusion is that in La Paz October and November is the summer time while people say it´s spring. It´s almost impossible that the rainy season from December to March is as warm as October and November have been this year, based on my experience.
We had a house built in the city of Cochabamba where the climate is super nice year round, but we simply prefer living in La Paz, at least so far.
In May it rained a lot and snowed a lot at higher elevations. The biggest snow came on June 9th. There was a solid snow pack from 4200 meters up for several days. I managed to go skiing only once on June 17th. I no longer have a car so I asked a taxi driver family member to take me to 4430 meters for 2$ and from there I walked up to 4830 where I skied for 1 hour 20 minutes. The place was an undulating mountain top and I made a short loop there. Then I walked down and ran/walked 6 km to 4200 and took a 15 minute minibus ride back home.

This area was very exposed to the sun and the snow was melting fast. Some days after skiing I went looking for a skiable area on the shady side of the mountains a couple of times but didn´t find any suitable (flat) area where I wouldn´t have to ski on a 20 degree slope.
There were also other heavy snowfalls but I was really busy with work and other things so in the end I only skied once even though it would have been an exceptional Bolivian ski season for someone with a lot of time and the freedom to take a car and head up to the mountains when the conditions look favorable. But it´s funny that many times when I go up to 4600 meters on a bike, it surprises me that there is no snow, and as many times it surprises me that there is snow! So it´s not a very predictable thing after all. Within the city of La Paz the weather is also quite unpredictable because it´s situated in about 5 valleys with most likely the biggest altitude differences in any city in the world, maybe 950 meters / 3100 ft.
Also climbing mountains would have been really good this year but I didn´t climb any. In September the mountains still looked very snowy.

Cross country ski training in La Paz

Since a few months I don´t own any motor vehicle. I had a 1990 Suzuki Vitara for over 3 years. It gave me plenty of trouble but luckily it didn´t fail on the longer trips to the mountains. Once last year however when I was coming from a mountain the brakes stopped working. I was at 4600 meters and the brake pedal just went through as I was driving down a dirt road. The road was quite straightforward and there was little to no traffic so there was no need to panic. Turned out the brake fluid had leaked all over. After a while I decided to try to get to the end of the city using engine braking and hand brake, because I didn´t want to leave the car on the countryside. Slowly but surely I got to the urban area and left the car there and told a shop owner that I´m leaving my vehicle there because the brakes don´t work. Just like Americans, Bolivians don´t like "suspicious vehicles" and I didn´t want to come back to a burned car so it was better to let at least someone know it was mine. The next day I ended up driving behind a family member through the busy city streets to a place where there are a lot of car mechanics. I got stopped by the police but he hadn´t noticed I was driving strangely. Instead, he asked me if I was a killer who had just escaped from jail... I don´t think he was serious though. So in the end I drove without brakes about 15 kilometers of downhill, descending almost 1000 meters.

While it is obviously helpful to have a car, driving is La Paz is never easy or fun so I don´t miss it all that much.

But anyway, nowadays I walk over 6 kilometers or almost 4 miles each way to do roller ski training at least occasionally.

I leave on foot from where I live at 3860 meters and take a few very steep streets to arrive at the beginning of countryside in 10 minutes. The climb gets steeper and the pace here is about 25 minutes per kilometer. The steep part goes on up until 4200 meters elevation. From there it´s easier with some flatter parts too. The path leads up to 4500 meters on a huge, treeless meadow. Then I need to go down to 4215 meters on the other side, and then climb for a few minutes to arrive at a new, paved road with totally perfect pavement. The downside is that every few kilometer there are gravel sections. The road has not been completed and it´s not been opened to traffic officially, and it looks like it will take years until that happens. There is very little traffic. I would say one vehicle every 10 minutes, or less.

Depending on the wind, in the best case I can train on an out and back loop of 25 minutes. If the wind is "bad", it forces me to use a much shorter section of the road, because it could push me to a downhill with too much speed and onto the gravel. So the skiing happens at 4200 - 4270 meters elevation (up to 14,000 ft). Of course I would rather train much lower, but there is no other place this good, not even close.

Good thing is that thanks to the altitude, the climbing, and the weight of the backpack with roller skis, boots, water and everything, all of the walking counts as training. Today it took 1:28 to get to the ski area and average hr was 121. Skiing was 1:40 with avg hr 133, and return took 1 hour 10 minutes with average hr of 121 as well, including about 30 minutes of jogging. On a good day all of that is easier than it sounds and there is always a sense of freedom in walking up there instead of driving. By car it takes almost 50 minutes to get to the "venue" so walking adds a lot of time efficiency there. Doing hard workouts this way is a bit questionable because it would still require a long workout at the same time.

Even on a lousy day the views are nice.

Olympics

This is my fourth full day at Pyeongchang Olympic Village and it´s 4.30 in the morning so it´s a good time to write about how I got here.

Here´s the background.

I went to Bolivia for the first time in December 2010. I traveled there from the U.S. where I was studying. I had met a Bolivian person and our plan was to travel in Bolivia and some other countries together. And later in 2011 I moved to Bolivia and got married that year. I probably thought about the possibility of representing Bolivia at the winter Olympic games as I found out that after getting married to a Bolivian person I would need to live in the country for 2 years to get citizenship. But still at that time winter Olympic games didn´t feel more important than studying, so after 8 months in Bolivia me and my wife went to Oklahoma for 3 years. In 2012 we did spend 3 months in Bolivia during the summer break.

I used to participate in local cross country ski races as a kid so I knew how to ski, and I always knew there are participants from even the most tropical countries. I thought I could be one of them if I´d be able to spend a few years in Bolivia. Skiing wasn´t the only reason we moved there. For example we wanted our son (and daughter) to grow up in Bolivian environment and to learn the language. There was also a good business opportunity for us that we didn´t see elsewhere. I really wanted to climb the Bolivian mountains and in all ways it seemed like an interesting thing to do. Of course there are some drawbacks to Bolivia too, but anyways it has worked well. I have been working online while in Bolivia, sometimes full-time and other times part-time. Since June 2017 I have only been doing 10 hours a week and I do keep doing that these days too.

Then in December 2014 we moved to La Paz, Bolivia and I got citizenship in March 2017. The first time I contacted Bolivian ski federation was in August 2016 just to let them know about me and my plan. They said there were people who were training on roller skis. A year passed until I contacted the federation again and now I was a citizen.

I needed a license to be able to race. In a lot of countries you buy that online for about 50$ and nobody cares, but the Bolivian federation felt like they needed to organize a roller ski event after which they´d decide who´s worthy of entering real competitions. Bolivia does have some history in alpine skiing and before these Olympics 13 persons had represented Bolivia at the winter Olympic games, mostly in the 80s. Those times there were invitations to the winter games for the not so traditional winter sport countries, but that´s not the case anymore. That´s why there has been no Bolivian participation since 1992. There are annual snowboard and alpine competitions on a mountain close to La Paz, but it´s a fully natural site with no facilities or anything.

I didn´t have roller skis, but I was told that roller skates would be ok. So I bought roller skates for about 170 dollars and went skating 2 times before the event. In the end there were me and 2 other guys, who apparently had tried roller skis before but they were not very good at staying upright. The federation has about 5-6 pairs of roller skis and we tried them and after that I was told I would need to pay 250 dollars for the license and fill out a paper. They lent me ski poles so I could keep training. Before going to Finland in November I was able to roller skate with or without poles 9 times (skate style only) and I also did 5 hard uphill training sessions with the poles without skis for classic style (I know that non-skiers don´t get this).

To enter the Olympic games, I needed to do well enough in at least 5 official, international competitions that  were on the international ski federation (FIS) calendar. The FIS uses "FIS points". You get points from each race, and your FIS points are the average of your 5 best performances.

I knew that I was in the best cycling shape of my life in November. I have a power meter on my bike, so it´s very easy to follow my progress. So I was confident about my fitness, but in the end it turned out it didn´t really transfer over to skiing. Finland has a lot of high level races to choose from even early in the season, so I got there on November 20. I had time to do one real ski training on snow before a weekend of competitions. I managed to get my muscles sore from that first training and didn´t recover from that before the races. I did a skate style competition on Saturday and classic style race on Sunday. From there I just never really felt fresh during the 8 weeks I spent in Finland, but I thought that was ok because I was practically sure I could get the needed points anyway even if I wasn´t fully rested before every race. I believed it was better to focus on doing plenty of training. I did 6 races in total.

In skiing it´s very hard for me to actually know if I´m feeling good, normal, acceptable or bad. You can´t compare your performance in training much, because the snow and weather conditions change all the time. Some days I would do a 5k loop in 20 minutes at a basic heart rate, but if there were a couple inches of wet and heavy snow on the track, it could easily take 25 minutes, or even 30.

Then there´s technique. Mine does look good if you are not a skier, but when I go fast it´s not that great anymore. You just can´t replace years of ski-specific training in weeks. Especially during the first few weeks in Finland I felt it was difficult to focus on technique because of how the ski loop constantly goes over hills and has a lot of curves, and so on. Within the classic and the skate style there are about 3 sub-techniques that you use, depending on if you are on flat, on a slight rise or an uphill. I was used to more simple sports, like cycling, running and swimming. For example in freestyle swimming technique is very important, but at least you maintain the same technique the whole time!  My greatest weakness is ski-specific strength. In races going uphill my mucles would reach their limits, while I was still not breathing very hard. That felt weird. I have to say I fully expected to be more competitive at the races, but the main thing was qualifying for the Olympics, which I did achieve.

I did 6 races quite soon after getting to Finland, because I wanted to make sure I´d obtain the necessary points fast in case I would get sick or hurt at some point. I was not used to cold weather, or the Finnish germs or anything, and for example a pneumonia could easily take 2 weeks to fully recover from. My last race was in mid-December and after that I focused on training. The last week in Finland was very difficult as muscles were fatigued. I was back in La Paz on January 17th and there I did cycling and a total of 5 roller ski trainings on skis provided by the federation. Roller skis are more difficult to ski on than real skis, so I decided to do hard trainings on the bike. I was surprised that 10 days after getting to La Paz I was able to perform even better in a cycling wattage test than before going to Finland, even though I did not do cycling there for 8 weeks (only one 40 minute indoor ride).I even did one 31-minute uphill cycling race on February 4th before traveling 3 days to South Corea starting on February 6th. Obviously I don´t have expectations of placing high, but my goal is to prepare in such ways that on the race day I´d finally feel fresh and ready to race. So hopefully on 16th I´ll be able to beat a handful of other competitors at least.

Yolosa - La Cumbre: Bike race with 3440 meters of absolute elevation gain

Yesterday I raced a very special bike race. It's called Yolosa - La Cumbre or YLC and it starts from the jungle at 1220 meters' (4000ft) elevation and finishes 63 kilometers (40 miles) later at 4650 meters (15,250ft). The start is below Coroico town and finish close to La Paz. I am sure that there are only a few races, if any, with this much absolute elevation gain in the world. For a lot of cyclists around La Paz this race is the highlight of the year and now was the 12th time the event was organized.

On Saturday there was the first stage of the race, a short cross country race in Coroico. Somehow in my mind I had completely ignored this stage while thinking about the main race all the time for the past weeks. I took this first stage very easy and finished in 45 minutes and placed 99th out of 270. I kind of felt sorry for the not-so-good folks that pushed really hard and passed me, but I knew I was going to feel great the next day.

I didn't really sleep the night before the big race because there was a lot of noise in the touristy area of Coroico. Next time I need to make sure to be further away, but now I didn't really have time to look for a hotel before the first stage. I got up at 5.30 in the morning and after 6 I rode my bike down from Coroico at 1750 meters to Yolosa at 1220 meters. Women started first at 7. Then men according to age. At some point I looked at my bike and noticed that my bottle was missing. I was totally sure it should have been in the cage but I don't know what happened. Luckily right there was a tiny store already open and they had Powerade. I bought one bottle and drank all of it. Problem solved and now I got to start without the weight from a full bottle.

 I was in the elite category and we were supposed to start at 7.15 5 minutes after the last age group. As the last start was going on, I was alone behind everyone and people urged me to start, so I did. Apparently the elite had already left, but that was ok because the race used chip timing. So I had about 270 people ahead of me. I got into my own rhythm and passed people all the time for the first hour or more. There was enough room for passing and the speed was low so no problem. This is a one lane dirt road that has some quite steep sections, but for the most part it rises very gently. My seatpost slowly slipped down and I quickly stopped to fix it twice. While it was a little annoying, I tried to tell myself that it was only good to use different muscles as the seat height changed... I was on a friend's bike that weighed 14,8 kilos (32 pounds) with my pedals, but otherwise it was a great bike, almost new.

 It was a little bit difficult to decide how fast to ride. I thought I would finish in 4,5 to 5 hours. Riding as hard as you can for 4,5 hours may sound simple (and absurdly hard), but there is no real way to know how hard you should go for the first hour or two, for example. I only have a power meter on one road bike wheel, and also the changing elevation would play a role in power output. The first 1-2 hours at the low elevations felt quite easy and I was not breathing hard. Muscles slowly got more tired, and obviously in the end muscle fatigue was going to be the most important limiting factor, I thought. I ate a lot of Oreo cookies while slowly but surely gaining elevation on the green mountains. It's not like I have traveled the world, but I would say that this area between La Cumbre and Coroico is about as spectacular as it gets. The dirt road is carved into the side of a mountain, and there is a steep drop most of the way right there on the side of the road. There are also 2 or 3 waterfalls that fall over the road.

There were three hydration points on the dirt road. First I took two mugs of Powerade, and on the second station some water. At this point I was alone, just occasionally passing riders. There is no real vehicle traffic on this road and nobody except the organizers were allowed there during the race. The third hydration was close to the paved road and there were a lot of people watching. I had given a bottle of Gatorade to a buddy the night before so he could give it to me at this spot, and there he was. I was also handed a bottle of Powerade, which I drank entirely. I was in a good situation for the second half of the race which was on a paved road from maybe 3100 meters elevation up. I knew I was going to pass more competitors. Legs still felt good, I was thinking clearly, and I smiled to the people cheering me on.

I adjusted my seat height one more time and this time it worked for good. From the beginning of the paved road I felt like I really needed to start going hard. I have been training on this part of the course probably more than anyone else in the race because for me it's conveniently close, but still it requires a long ride to get to the race course. I felt like at home there. Someone told me that 17 riders had passed before me, and so I started pushing hard. I passed many, and all of them seemed exhausted and could not follow at all. This gave me a spark, but once I got to a spot well known to me after riding almost 3 hours, I kind of panicked because I thought I was barely going to finish in under 5 hours, or maybe in 4.50. That's when the race was totally on for me.

A couple of friends appeared in a car and they rode beside me on and off making all kind of noise, which gave me a boost. The last 2 hours of the race were really strong and at some point I believed I had a chance to go under 4 hours 30 minutes which felt like a big deal, so I kept driving as hard as I could. When I assumed I had maybe 25 minutes to go, I saw two racers in the distance. I didn't want to lose the opportunity to gain 2 more spots and tried even harder. Quite soon I passed them in the steepest part of the paved road and left them behind 15 minutes before finish line.

I got sixth overall in 4 hours 29 minutes. I wonder how much faster I could go on a bike that's 5 kilos lighter, or more... Dragging 5-7 kilos less for 3400 elevation meters should make a huge difference, but I guess I'm doing it right by having a light body weight and a heavy bike, not the other way around.

Winner was the icon of Bolivian cycling, Oscar Soliz. He has been the most successful Bolivan cyclist by a lot for about 10 years and he's the face of the sport here. For years Soliz has been riding for Movistar on continental level as a tiny climber and team captain, but for some reason he didn't make it to Europe. He did the Yolosa - La Cumbre in 3.51. Second place was Tinker Juarez from the U.S. in 4.08 and third was a local guy who rarely races with 4.10. Fourth was a Chilean racer, fifth another local and then me. In the combined results of both stages I was 7th overall. Would be very interesting to have power numbers from that race. Anyway despite the elevation changes throughout the course I believe I rode the later half at much higher effort. I think next time I'll ride a little bit harder on the dirt part.

Edit: At the end of November Oscar Soliz was suspended for cera, a type of epo. Ok then, we won´t be seeing him until 2021.  Or, in fact he might still show up to independent races like Yolosa-La Cumbre.