Enduro World Series: Colombia

When we first heard the EWS was headed to Colombia, we knew we had to go. We'd raced in Chile and Argentina before, but never in the jungle proper. We'd been told to expect rad trails, steep with good dirt, but slick as hell if it rained. And rain it did... 
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We arrived to Medellin, Colombia early morning Monday, the week of the race. A city built straight out of the jungle, Medellin is full of rich culture, including that of Pablo Escobar and his cocaine industry. While once the murder capital of the world, Medellin is much safer than it used to be, although not quite safe enough to truly "freestyle" -- more on this later. Back to racing....

7 hours and 190km later, we arrived in Manizales, a small mountain town that we would call home for the next week. Over the next few days as we waited for practice to start (Friday), we caught up with friends, toured the city, got familiar with Colombian dirt (on a local coffee plantation), and did a little track walking. 

Friday came and so did practice for stages 2-8... tracks were SICK. Nothing technical or overly steep. Just fun, flowy tracks through the jungle. Very little climbing on the tracks themselves, outside of stage 7 with a mega punch in the middle. Stage 5 was a favorite amongst racers -- a tunnel through vegetation leading to the steepest pitch of the day. So rad! Stage 4 and 6 were a such muddy mess our wheels stopped turning in practice. We had our fingers crossed that the tracks dried out over the next few days, but the weather report didn't look too promising. Especially since we were in Colombia during the rainy season.... (think afternoon downpours).

Saturday: URBAN DH Race Day!

Saturday morning came quickly -- we loaded up the car, and headed over for our "inspection" lap of the urban DH course, follow quickly by our race run. What a crazy first stage of the year -- over 20,000 spectators came out to watch the race and cheer us on. Streets were packed with people!  It was the most amazing two and a half minutes, pinning it down stairs and off curbs, while experiencing the people of Manizales.

​As soon as the race ended, the rain began... and it didn't stop until mid morning Sunday. Just in time for us to start Day 2.

In typical "Enduro Wet Series"  fashion, Saturday started as a wet one. Stages 4 and 6 were wet enough during practice, that we couldn't even fathom what the tracks were like that day. Oh well...it's all about the experience, right? Oh yeah, and trying to go fast...

Turns out we don't ride in the mud well. We knew we were coming to Colombia in the rainy season, and generally don't ever ride in the mud (for fear of being exiled from our local Hood River community -- lots of trail damage!). And we knew that chances were we were going to be racing in the mud... we just didn't know that this mud was actually closer to "peanut butter" or "freeze thaw", think mud that sticks to everything. And I mean everything. But why stay in our comfort zones? Might as well see what we can do, be humbled, and have a rad day in the woods with friends on bikes, on some of the best track Colombia has to offer. Sounded good to us!

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Needless to say, as predicted, I ran most of stage 2, and all of stage 4 as my wheels completely stopped turning too many times to count. You know it's bad when everyone clips their fenders before dropping into the first stage, and you're running/slipping/falling alongside 8 other women in your category. Normally, you don't see anyone -- okay, maybe one person, but to see 8, and to all be flailing about in the mud, is pretty hilarious and speaks to the sort of situation we were dealing with.  At one point, likely whilst cursing the mud as I was trying to pick up my bike to "run" up a hill, my bike fell to the ground, about 60# heavier, loaded with mud. From the sidelines, our friend Marco Osborne yelled, "Keep a positive attitude!", while my amazing lady friend, Teal yelled to me "Stay on your bike!" and that became the theme of the day. After awhile, it became funny, and ladies and gents were passing/getting passed while seat bouncing and full-bore squidding down tracks. Key was to keep your bike moving, and keep momentum -- if you stopped, you were likely to never get started again. It was downright entertaining, and by the end of the last stage, we were exhausted and happy to finish the day in one piece before the downpour started again. Phew! While not proud of our results, we were proud to have finished the day, and put in a strong effort, despite being no bueno at riding (or running) in peanut butter mud. ​