Sunday started out early. At around 11:00 the previous night, everybody got an email saying that stage 6 would be canceled because of all the rain. This was a huge relief for me because of the long climb to get to it, and it was so difficult riding in practice before the crazy rain came later on after practice. We packed mostly everything up in the car the previous night, we just had to put the bikes in. You can race without certain gear, water, and food, but not without a bike. We got to the park, but realized that they wouldn’t let us park inside without a pass that was only given to the factory teams and important people. Luckily we left pretty early and had time to find parking. We barely got unpacked before people started asking for pictures with us. After finishing up with that, we went to the start line. I usually ride and race enduro with a Garmin device that tracks and displace distance, time, speed, elevation gain, and a bunch of other things. Unlike everything else on my bike, it needs to be charged, and I forgot it back at the apartment. I was a little concerned about this because I used it to know how much further and how much elevation gain was left during the climbs. I accepted it and decided I didn’t need it and my watch was all I needed.
I started off the climb a lot easier than practice day and it wasn’t too bad to get to the top of stage 2. Near the top of the climb, we rode right next to stage 2 and we saw the carnage. Bikes everywhere, people with mechanical issues, and a lot of walking. The start order was by membership. If you had a EWS Membership you could gather points for the following year and usually meant you were racing more than 1 race. The numbers went highest to lowest, so theoretically, the slower riders went first and the fastest went last. I had this in mind while watching and thought it probably wouldn’t be all too bad. I had been riding on the North Shore, I should be used to riding in those conditions! I couldn’t be more wrong… The final stretch of the climb was out in the open and was a complete mud pit. You couldn’t even ride; everybody got off and walked to get through to the start line. I had quite a bit of time before my start time so I started watching and walked a bit down the trail to see how it was lower down. It didn’t look good. People were struggling as soon as they got to a slight incline into the trees. I picked a line and started visualizing it for my race run.
The time came and I dropped in. I had the same problem that other people did with the climb, but made the tricky root section that I had planned just fine. Further down, it got wetter and more slippy, and when I got to the switch backs, Anthony had caught up to me and while passing, ended up crashing and going straight down the hill. I yelled to see if he was ok, and went past him, but as soon as the trail got flat, I lost all speed and my tires got clogged up There was nothing left to do, I jumped off and started running, dragging my bike behind me because my wheels wouldn’t budge. The race kind of turned into a fight for “survival” with everybody doing the same thing as me. We weren’t really worried about who was going first, it was more of making it to the next downhill section so we could all get back on our bikes and start racing. To sum it up, most of stage 2 went like this. Down towards the bottom where it got steeper and faster, I scared myself and went a lot faster than I wanted to because I actually couldn’t slow down. It ended up working out though and I didn’t crash too many times or too badly because of it. By the bottom I was exhausted and aching. Dragging a bike behind you while running up a slippery hills isn’t something that I really train for, and my shoulders were really hurting.
Anthony ended up breaking his brake lever in half and had borrowed some tape and a pen to tape try to tape everything together. I felt really bad and thought he’d have to pull out of another EWS. I continued on, knowing that because I had crashed and gotten down stage 2 so slowly, I wouldn’t have a whole lot of time to get to stage 3. I made it with only 5 minutes to spare and didn’t have time to refill my water at the food station which was at the top. I was surprised that Anthony was there and ready to drop in. Surely he couldn’t race with a broken brake lever, but it turns out that what he did and the tape and the pen worked so he could finish the race without too much issue. I don’t recall much of stage 3 other than the bottom, but I assume it was very similar to stage 2. Lots of running, crashing, and dragging my bike behind me.
We continued on to stage 4, passing the finish line on the other side of the creek to see all the riders washing their bikes in the running water. Because of the rain, parts of the road that ran beside the creek were flooded and we were riding through some deep water in some places. There was word that stage 4 would start a little lower down on a steeper section so riders would actually be able to be on their bikes right off the start. One thing that I remember about stage 4 is that I think I was only clipped in for about the first 7 seconds of the stage. The whole next part I had one or, most times, both feet out to keep myself upright, just riding on the seat and holding onto the handle bars. This caused a lot pf pain in my back holding that position while being bounced around and fighting to change direction. Frustrated, I finished stage 4 and started washing my bike in the river.
Since we had skipped riding stage 5 on Friday, I didn’t know how long it took or what the climb to the top was like. At one point we had to cross this “bridge”, but I don’t think you could call it that. It had railings on both sides, but was pretty much just metal pipes stretched across a raging river with two pipes in between them holding them together so you could hop your way over it. Definitely not ideal considering you had to get your bike across, had muddy slippery feet, and I’m scared of heights. I wish I had gotten a picture to share how sketchy it was, but I didn’t know how much longer the climb was so I hurried along. I made it to the top with actually a lot of time to spare, and a lot of riders behind us that I knew made it soon after so there was more socializing.
Stage 5 wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be from walking it. The rain had made the big “tunnel” super slippery and hard to control the bike because it was pretty hard packed and the big rut pretty much decided where you went. Near the bottom was better, but I still wasn’t too happy.
After coming back to the race village for a time check, the sun came out and after refilling with water and some food, I was determined to finish the race strong on the last two stages. The climb to get to stage 7 was super short and I felt refreshed for the sprint that started the stage off. Stage 7 went better than the previous ones because the thick trees didn’t allow too much rain through and the ground had a bit more traction than the previous stages. I actually had fun on some sections and hitting the jumps made all the mud and pain not matter anymore. The climb wasn’t easy, but I pushed through and finished strong. The final stage was sort of a victory lap. I didn’t come close to winning, but just finishing the day was good enough for me.
Handing in the timing chip, I was relieved to have finished my second EWS in one piece. I wasn’t happy with how this one went at all. I couldn’t seem to figure out how to ride the ruts compared to other people. As I was waiting in line for the bike wash talking to people, I remembered how cool it was that we were thousands of miles away from home racing bikes. I had looked at the maps on my phone a few times in different places, noticing how far away that little blue dot was from home and realizing how different and yet how similar it things were on the other side of the world.
After a much needed shower and food, Anthony and I started to discuss how we would get to the airport the next day. His flight left Monday evening because he was going further north in Columbia for a short vacation and to explore more of the country. My flight out of Columbia was at 5:00 AM on Tuesday morning. Meaning that I would have to stay in the airport all night. There was a bus that we could catch that would take us to the airport around 11:00AM on Monday, but that meant even more time in the airport. We packed up the rental car the next morning and headed back to return it and to see if we could keep it a little longer so we could drive back to Pereira and take our time, stopping along the way to look at things of interest. We were able to and all we had to do was switch cars. It was pretty funny seeing the look on the persons face as she watched both of us take two big bike bags, two big luggage bags and a bunch of smaller things out and into the same sized car. By this time, we were pros at fitting a lot of things into tiny cars.
The drive to Pereira was pretty cool, we took a different route than what the bus driver did on the way to Manizalas and made a couple stops along the way. One of which was a Columbian version of a truck stop on the side of the road to have some food. They had a little souvenir shop but everything was pretty expensive. It was raining once again when we got to Pereira and we managed to get to the airport and return the rental car in time. Now it was the looooong wait for the flights. Because my flight was the next morning and I was taking Anthony’s bike back, I had to keep an eye on both of them the whole night because baggage checking didn’t start until 3:00 AM. I said farewell to Anthony when it was his time to leave, but a group of people from Vancouver/ Vancouver Island came right after, so I didn’t have to be alone the whole night. It was a very small airport and everything shut down around 10:00 PM and we were pretty much the only ones in the airport. A couple police officers tried talking to us but they didn’t know English and we didn’t know Spanish so that didn’t get very far. I tried to sleep, but the row of seats weren’t that comfortable so I ended up staying up the whole night. Finally 3:00 AM rolled around and I got to get rid of all the luggage.
The flights back were uneventful and I spent a total of 40 hours either in airports or on planes. At least I can say I’ve been to Panama and San Fransisco now!
Just like that, my first international trip and first Enduro World Series races are over. It was a very eventful 3 1/2 weeks and I learned a lot! Not only about riding bikes, but everything that goes along with it when you travel. I met a lot of very amazing people and was shown great compassion and kindness by mountain bikers and locals alike. I can’t wait for the next adventure!
