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.