Downhill

        Finally got to get on a bike today! I headed off with Sam,  the son of one of the volunteer Docs at the clinic, and a local tour company to do a day in the Andes full of technical single track and some dirt roads that might as well be a downhill course. We were met in the morning by our guide Uri(?) a local pro downhiller and our driver Fidel. Uri’s English was a little better than my Spanish and you could tell he has had his run in with high speed bike crashes by the dazed look he had on sometimes (or maybe he was just stoned). The bikes were as expected, hard tail, 26-inch wheels and minimal front suspension. I wasn’t too concerned with our bike set-up until I saw Uri’s full suspension full downhill rig in the back of the truck.

Uri, our guide....

            

We drove over an hour to get to the first section of trail but not before getting stopped by police and having to bribe them with money to let us continue our trip. I’m still not exactly sure why we were stopped but our guide seemed to think it wasn’t all that uncommon. After getting the pedals on and checking the brakes we followed Uri’s line down the first section of trail only to be met with Sam almost immediately getting a pinch flat. A soon as we fixed his, I noticed my front tire was losing air. I guess it was only appropriate to have a bike ride in true Magner style, with a couple of flats in the first few minutes. We continued the ride passing amazing views of snow capped peaks, salt mines and locals carrying the fall harvest. It ended up being probably 30 minutes of nothing but downhill without any casualties.  

            We waited for Fidel at the bottom of the trail for almost thirty minutes after we were done and it seemed the communication between our two guides wasn’t the best. Uri flagged down someone on a motorcycle and hopped on the back to try and get to a phone. Fidel showed up not too long after Uri left, but we were reunited when Uri climbed out of a bus packed full of people.

            The next section of trail took us through the town of Urutamba. On the way up we passed terraces cut into the mountain used for farming and it was hard to believe the effort it must have taken to put those in the hillside. We ate lunch atop the mountain before getting back on the saddle to tackle what Uri said was some of his favorite single track. The trail reminded me a lot of Pisgah, with some really technical rocky sections and creek crossings. We dropped down the mountain for a good while before hitting the town and loading up for the final section. This was definitely my favorite section of the day.

            We drove for almost 2 hours to get atop the mountain that separates Cusco and Pisac. By this time Sam and I were somewhat comfortable with the set up and realized the limits to our 600 $ bikes. As we headed down, my hands immediately began to throb from the previous trails as well as my lack of riding mountain bikes for the past month. The first half consisted of manageable double track but things changed immediately when Uri cut through to a hidden trail. He stopped to tell us we would be doing the Red Bull course (wtf?) for Cusco downhill competitions and to simply follow his line and lower our seats for better control. Surely this wouldn’t be a problem seeing as though we had bikes meant for sidewalks rather than grueling downhill. We followed his line (when we could see him) for the most part and I was grabbing a handful of break the whole time, doing a controlled slide while going way faster than I felt confortable. During the hardest section I came up on Sam who would was barreled over with his bike laying 10 feet away. He had no broken bones but his bike was not so fortunate. The seat rails were bent, as was his big chain ring. We managed to fix the bike with the Peruvian style of banging it with a rock and we rode the last few minutes back to the car, thankful that the bike took the brunt of the impact. Uri didn’t seem to upset about the bike and I forced him to say that we weren’t bad for a couple of gringos.

whip sticks

f            I definitely won’t forget the experience and I’m glad I got a taste of some of the best mountain biking around Peru. I’m starting to rethink trying to buy a bike while I’m down here. It sounds like I won’t be able to find a bike that is really fit for downhill unless I spend a ton of money and the cheaper bikes may get me killed on some of this terrain. But, who knows, I may be able to find the black market of sweet downhill whips and be able shred the gnar on the Red Bull course.