Well I lost a friend cause of that devils hideout, not a bad cyclist by the way, so advised him to go up there if he went cycling in Col, wrote me this 2 weeks ago:
"I reached Ibagué after a day of good false-flats. I stayed at a cyclist’s home, who fed me a good línea-crossing-day breakfast. I rode 25 hard miles that day. I stopped in Cajamarca. "Hard day"
I asked a local La Linea how far, he started shaking, looked at me and started shouting Maria, Maria. "La Línea starts 5 miles up the road," he said. I began to believe in the defying of the laws of physics and the upside down línea.
It took me a god damn 3 and a half hours to cycle the next 17 miles. This is the steepest road I’ve had ever seen. It was, the most physically demanding I've ever encountered. I thought my 5 months of riding make this climb a bit easier, then some 2 or 3 mile climbs near the beginning of my trip, but that was not the case.
In some 40 miles, I had reached an altitude of 3300 meters, equal to 10,876.77 feet. I found out that this is the highest pass in all of Colombia, with elevation markers from 7.5% up to 18%. Cool.
I had seen other bikers going up. All of them were holding on to the back of semi-trucks. Then a real biker passed me. The shorts, the jersey, the helmet, and going up by leg power. 250 feet later I saw him grab the next semi. I couldn’t believe it. "Weak", I yelled, and in English, but I was already walking after 3 miles when it started 12% and up. Later I saw him going down in tears, probably cause he didn't make it to the top. If I am going down, I like to know that I’ve earned it, so I kept on walking and peddeling for a bloody 3 hours to the top with temperture sinking below zero.
Going down La Linea was no fun though. It was raining, foggy, ice cold, shady road and I got a rear flat on top. The puncture surprised me. It was on the inside of the tube, next to the rim, and very difficult to patch. My glue-less patches had performed very well until now, but an inside flat seemed unpatchable. I changed the tube, continued down and got another flat. Same spot, same cut. I had no other spares, so I super glued a patch into place; it worked. It took me another 2 and a half hours to make it down.
So, no thank's for your advice, and I don't want to be your friend anymore, comprende.
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