Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Ride from Santiago into Los Andes

Did a 3 hour ride into the mountains "behind" Santiago in what felt to me like baking heat.  3 bottle ride for sure... lots of sweating.

Here's what the Ibis looks like packed.  Man is this a nice machine.


Tried to go up to a ski hill, but mis-navigated a bit.  No worries though, personal experience has taught me that observatories are also located at high elevation.  Follow the signs!


Bummer it's closed.




Hiking trail to top of mountain.  You'd need a VO2 over 90 and a body weight of 120lbs to ride the trail, it went straight up and was in the baking sun.  I was where the red and blue lines meet on the top right picture, the hiking trail just climbs up to the top by the most direct route.

I could see the buildings of Las Condes in the distance, but the photo didn't capture them.  It's right beyond that last visible hill.  On the way up I was almost hit by a Chilean Evel Knievel who was downhill skateboarding down this massive hill.  He came flying around a corner, both our eyes widened, he made it past me and just kept booking it.  He was going faster than I'd ever want to travel on a skateboard.


On the way down my front disc for my brakes started jingling around, I had forgotten to tighten it when I build the bike.  Coming into town I spotted a bike shop that helped me out, and also snugged my cassette and rear one.  They didn't have a tube I could buy in the entire shop, as I realized I didn't have any.  Strange.  Big shop too.  Said everyone buys tubeless, or commuter tires, and they just hadn't had a shipment in.  All that makes sense... but a bike shop without a 26" tube is still funny.

Workout at the gym plus pool time was in order too.  Feels so good!

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