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.