Hope you return soon, we have more savage climbs for you, a few things to clarify: - Official record: 3:02:34, made in El Clásico RCN, in 2017. The rider went solo. - Vuelta Colombia ≠ Tour of Colombia 2.1 - Here in Colombia we ride alongside traffic, bike lanes are only in cities. - Obviously there are longer climbs than Letras (even here in Colombia there is a 96km climb, El Crucero from Aguazul to Sogamoso) but Letras is the only UCI measured/approved/whatever.
hey bro... I'm Colombian. You are awesome. When I was 19 I rode my country like mad. I'm 67 now and still ride. As long as you like suffering... you are find.
To clarify, it's the longest climb featured in pro cycling, UCI 2.1 race, vuelta a colombia, there are other ones, in fact, you can continue climbing after letras, for other 16km, to 4500 meters, towards the volcano El Ruiz on the left, cheers, very good efforts 👌💪💪
Exactly! We Colombians are also chauvinistic as any other nationality. If you keep going 5 Km on the same national road, you turn left and take the road to Nevado del Ruiz. It's paved 1Km beyond Cerro Guali (4000m), but, as with Mauna Kea, it's gravel from there until the refugio (4300m) or, if lucky, until the highest parking at 4800m. Because it's an irregular climb you end up doing 5700m of elevation gain in 117Kms until Guali. The rest, as with Mauna Kea, is just an anecdote However, I'm pretty sure, in Chile and Peru, you might find higher and longer mountain passes
Next up: "The Hawaiian volcano of Mauna Kea ("white mountain") is considered one of the most extreme cycling climbs in the world. From the beach in Hilo to the telescopes at the summit it's 4,200m of altitude gain in one continuous climb of nearly 70km"
Nicely done. You are on first page, #25 on the Strava. And correctly all the top 50 results come from big groups having raced. So your individual work is commendable.
how about giving phil an old steel bike from the 80s, no fancy scientific food shit, no computers, all the time in the world and above all no need to do anything better. lets see how he does then! KEEP SPINNING, PHIL
sharing what you thought about the entire ride was super interesting thanks a ton. not deep or anything just a very relatable experience being stuck in my head for too long
Awesome ride! Minor feedback on the edit: the color grading is all over the place. Some frames look like raw-flat footage with no color grading while others are heavily color graded. Just a small tip :) love your content though
Man it’s a lot to get all this stuff filmed and edited. My priority is to tell the story first and make it pretty second. Work in progress and I’m always trying to improve it. Thanks for watching
@@worstretirementever It looks like one of your cameras is set to a cinema profile for video recording which results in very flat looking footage. An easy way to make your videos look more consistent would be to change the recording mode to a different color profile with more contrast built into it. Most cameras should be able to let you do that fairly easily. What are you shooting with?
Holy cow: I sooo identified with the ending of that video. I do crazy solo miles and Im always singing to myself the stupidest renditions of song in my head the whole damn day.
Do not think I have seen you that spent in a video before. Great job. Thanks for telling the story of the village that was destroyed. Great story telling Phil.
I used to have some good lungs back in the day, but man, 300+W over 200 minutes? That's no joke. Someone trained a lot! Is that average of the pedaling done or the full ride?
Come to Denver! You can ride up to Mt. Evans at 14,264 ft - you can start riding at 5400 feet and with some ups and downs along the way it will wind up being just shy of 12,000 vert in 50 miles!
Catalan Loco the cameraman put the camera on a flat profile (designed to make it easier to color later) and never put a color on it. No biggie but that’s why it looks ... flat.
I would totally trade you this Chicago COLD for the Columbia sun. I haven’t even touched the pedals and we’re 4.5 months into the year. At multiple times during the video I was tempted to go through on my bibs just so I could live vicariously through you on your epic ride.
Being in the middle of Draft Animals, I am feeling some extra context on your journey. These videos are so good for cycling Phil! I know you know that, that’s the reason you do them I assume, but it really is quite a journey. We common mortal cyclist can distill it into the essence of this great sport and anyone of us personal journey.
Been cycling for about 8 months ,what a great way to excercise bit older 53 ,but great cardio workout/I chest pump it’s great being in fifties and to be able to do this ,feel great 👍 32 inch waist 😀aiming for marathon under 4 hrs when 60/ it’s like I am living my 20/30 s now
Granada, Spain -> Pico De Veleta. Continous climb from 672m to 3373m in less than 50k (you'd need a bit of technical skills on the glaciered deteriated paved road above 3320m). Climb is significantly shorter if you start from Güejar Sierra where the Vuelta/Ruta del Sol usualy starts when they climb to Mazallanas but that would add a 100-150m in start elevation.
Very nicely done!!! Funny thing.... I'm watching this video while in my Normatec's after riding 100 miles with Camilo Villegas, the rider whom you mention in the video!! Make no mistake... I ride with him a few days a week..... he rides as well as he swings a golf club!!!! He's a true BEAST!!! I'm having so much fun watching you KILL all these climbs!!! Let the retirement roll on!!! 💪
New to cycling here. Someone recommended your book. While I was reading it, it occurred to me to look for you on Strava. Which led me to your RU-vid channel. Um... cycling, travel, humor -- what's not to love?! #NewFan Will stick around to learn what the deal is with the cookies if nothing else.
He just loves cookies. It's a thing for him. I have two of his books, and I got to meet him at a bike shop here in Vegas once for a book signing. I think he may have been instrumental in me finally getting Strava too. I was watching his channel before I got the app.
Great stuff Phil - I really enjoy your channel and what you do for climbing by road bike. By the way, we are taking Javier international next month on our trip to document bike climbs of Mt. Fuji, Doi Inthanon and Wuling Pass. Thanks again for the fantastic and entertaining material. jj
Awesome effort. Definitely putting this climb on the bucket list. By the way. I want to see you climb Haleakala on Maui. So many great views with a very steady gradient throughout. Paved all the way from 0-10,000 ft.
Awesome job Phil, glad to see you did't let that climb get the beat of you! You reminded me of Bryan Fogel in Icarus where he is sprawled out in that store on top of Mt. Ventoux! Again great job and was glad you went back to get revenge on it!
Thinking of Omaira Sanchez suffering made him think his suffering while climbing alto de letras was a luxury. I will keep that in mind while doing long training.
Phil someday you have got to do the road climb that takes you 3/4 of the way up Mt Fuji, Japan. Amazing surface, hairpins galore. 5th station rest house at the top! Oh yeah there is a KOM ;)
If you examined the Strava graph for Alto Las Letras your reconnaissance of slope changes would have been adequate. The dips are clear in gradient and distance measures.
Do you want to do an even longer climb? 152km from sea level to Ticlio, Peru, used to be the wold's highest railroad junction in the world, at 4828amsl (15,807 ft). Now the train goes into a tunner 100m below, but it's on a similar highway... feel free to visit.. :/
This was a fantastic episode and I laughed out lout at the end. You were surely loosing your mind there at least a bit. I was under the impression thet you were more apt for shorter, punchier climbs. Clearly not!. 3:30, oh my! Anyways, now I'm motivated to go out for a long one. Thanks for the great content!
Incredible effort. Is it fun for 3 hours along a highway though?! Even if it is a cycling "monument". Still, well done. Try Cuesta de Lipan in Argentina some time. It's even more remote, and ridiculously high, and Argentina is an incredible place. And the UCI hasn't sent a race over it (yet). But the current KOM is decent.
Meanwhile on Strava Tyler AND Jasper - two of my absolute heroes - are staying at the Wattage Cottage and posting epic rides! 🤯🤯🤯 The worlds collide - this is too exciting!
