High adventure on wheels

One of the extreme biking routes at Peruvian Northern needs to adjust some details for having you.

 

    Almost 2600 meters or 8580 feet above sea level. Under the tights, the muscles are preparing to hold on the pedal and going downhill about 1300 or 4290 feet. Then, going up until about 2300 meters or 7590 feet and finish on 1800 meters or 5940 feet. If those numbers are few for you, it’s about 50 km or 35 miles riding over the soil that, at a plain line, looks like shorter.

 

That is the challenge offered by Pacaipampa District, what have come the local government to promote biking where the geography and the weather play key roles to offer us one of the most extreme routes in Piura Andes, Peru. Although not consecutive, four championships were run in this territory at least.

 

The zone is abrupt in extreme because it contains almost all the altitude steps of the Piura’s Andes, from the páramo over 3000 meters or 9900 feet to yoongas or warm lands at 1200 meters or 3960 feet. Quiroz River borns here and its multiple nascents have created deep cracks that are the ideal stage for testing the strength and the adrenalin. This river starts at the lakes of the páramo.

 

The tourism guide Segundo Neyra states there are around 70 of those water mirrors “and we just discovered another new, about 3700 meters [12,210 ffeet],” almost the altitude of Fuji Mount in Japan. The highest lake in Pacaipampa is at 3500 meters or 11,550 feet, as much as we know.

 

There are two routes. The biking’s begins in Totoras Billage, almost 2600 meters or 8580 feet, 7590 feet, falls into Curilcas [Coorilcas], about 1300 meters or 4290 feet, climbs up again  at 2300 meters or 7590 feet, and finishes in the district’s capital at 1800 meters or 5940 feet. There’s another for marathon beginning in Ñoma Village about 2500 meters or 8250 feet, and goes downhill to Pacaipampa [Pakiapampa].

 

    Testing tights and calves

To prove the difficulty degree that the route represents, FACTORTIERRA ran a test on the realistic stage with the support of Pacaipampa District Municipality and the Health Managing Local Committee. To learn how a true athlete would react, two bikers with many hours pedaling and prior competitions were contacted. They were requested to choose sections of the route and tell their reactions.

 

The test subjects were elio Nizama Vásquez, 26, and Gonzalo el Gatto Pintado López, 33, both belonging to Peru’s National Federation of Cyclism. Plus two FACTORTIERRA’s producers, a medical doctor and a physical coach (Obdulio Julcahuanga Chanta) were demanded for monitoring the athletes’ performance, and expectant in case of any trouble.

 

There are some variables worthy to consider. El Gatto was more than a decade of experience, more muscular mass, and knows the route: “I was already here,” he said. Elio reported overweight (trending to obesity), he was here never ever before, and his experience is shorter. The FACTORTIERRA production warned the bikers not to hide the effects and to report any problem, and repeated the municipality’s officers that the analysis would be totally independent, based upon the medical monitoring.

 

The bikes they used are professional, similar in model. They should ride over a clay soil wet by showers fallen for two days, and just one hour before the test. The dudes chose an uphill  section between 2000 meters or 6600 feet and 2300 meters or 7590 feet on the way from Pacaipampa to Curilcas. “The atmospheric pressure increases with the altitude,” the physical coach explained, “and the body can unbalance”

 

    High achievement required

The El Gatto’s two daily hours of training and better physical condition made his performance to be adequate, and against his fear to reach 180 beats per minute (bpm), he just had a 156-bpm peak. The Pacaipampa Health Post’s doctor said he shouldn’t fear because the risky number is 240 bpm. “It’s not about you’re gonna have a stroke but the heart begins to have malfunction above that quantity.”

 

Elio kept ever behind El Gatto but he could accomplish the route even when his beats were lower – just over 60. However, Coach Julcahuanga warned: “You must enter a diet” because his overweight could play a problem. It’s necessary to point out that not all the organisms react the same way, so a detailed medical checkis required, and Elio & Gonzalo’s results were referential.

 

After the test, the dudes were to take a shower and the available water was cold. The inmediate effect could be muscle cramps in waist, buttocks, and legs due to the high level of blood congestion. Fortunately, nothing happened. Rather, who suffered it was the photography producer because he had to run for getting good shoots, and it’s not the same to do it at 60 meters or 198 feet over sea level than more than 30 times that altitude.

 

Another conclusion is, despite the extreme it may look like, the tour may be amazing for the professional bikers because it offers the usual difficulty degrees in competition, even if it begins to rain heavy. The problem may be for the support vehicles, heavier, those could get a struck on the clay. The section between Chalaco and Pacaipampa is not well conserved neither, and part of it is used for another proof – marathon. The way is narrow and made of clay.

 

The other Pacaipampa’s problem is it has no enough hotel capability for having participants in massive tournaments, and they should go to the districts around like Chalaco at 1 ½ hours by road, or Morropón at 3 hours. If those hostels get without running water, there will be problems at the time of taking a bath, and don’t think of using WCs. For the record, the restaurant in Chalaco Town had no restrooms in good condition.

 

In Pacaipampa, it’s imposible to find a store and the people don’t know to give directions to get to anywhere, despite the local municipality has come promoting a tourism development programme 15 years ago.

 

It doesn’t have an exact number of local runners or bikers yet, but it’s presumable they are not well implemented. Only in biking, one of the promoters belief that many of the bikes, not adapted for a professional competition, would end like junk, and their riders, wounded, a problem that the local health post doesn’t have capability to deal in case of a massive tournament.

 

In a land where the adventure sport has a lot of potential, there are not conditions yet that ease the athletes to have the safety of timely and kind services, and just at the zones where those activities could have a better success, the local communities are reluctant to the visitors because of misunderstandings with a mining company. While the local authority and the people don’t aadjust those details, Pacaipampa won’t be a destination for adventure but an adventure choosing it as a destination. But, if somebody’s motivated, the place is available (the references are in Spanish).

 

Produced by Franco Alburqueque & Nelson Peñaherrera and Gloria Namuche. © 2011 Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved.