Bikepacking Colombia: Chingaza Loop Scouting

We initiated our scout in Villa de Leyva to attempt to make a connection between Bogota and the Oh Boyaca! bikepacking route (bikepacking.com/routes/oh-boyaca-colombia/).



Boyaca, Colombia is the birthplace of Nairo Quintana, the most celebrated pro cyclist in Colombia. Villa de Leyva was a very lovely… read more

Our route took us into a stretch of private property, so we turned around and re-routed to the village of Lenguazaque.



The highlight of the ride was definitely passing through the Rabanal Paramos, our first ride into a cloud forest that captures moisture and filters drinking water through vegetation… read more

Our intention was to connect the reservoir and small farm roads to Sesquile. The connection ended up being blocked to public traffic and we had to detour around to a main road. We spent the night in Sesquile, a town with plenty of restaurants, shops and lodging options.

Road connection to Sesquile. I had to turn my Wahoo ROAM on and off for some reason. I did my best to record all of our rides in Colombia, even this tiny one!

Rue got sick the previous evening. We rode to Guasca to catch up with our group where we took a break to try and gain access to Chingaza National Park. Route building is all about tirelessly trying to find solutions and not giving up!

On this initial tour, we detoured to Choachi instead of riding directly into Chingaza National Park because we didn't have permission. The day was mostly descent and lower elevation definitely came with warmer weather. From Choachi, we organized a driver to take us to San Juanito to continue our scouting.

I went out for a solo scout to make a dirt connection from Choachi to the main road back to Bogota. I later learned that this route is used for a race called the "Ruta Killer". It's hard!



This stretch didn't end up making the final cut as Juan Pablo helped us find another way that ultimately routes on… read more

Edgar from Choachi gave us a ride to San Juanito so we could continue scouting. This area was a notorious base for FARQ communist guerrillas in the 1990s. It is now very peaceful and just beginning to welcome tourists. Locals were very kind to us.



The riding is lush, passing many waterfalls, with so much… read more

Juan Pablo put together a dirt route out of Bogota that passes through a paramos only 15 km from the city. We went out for a day ride to scout it together. Later that afternoon, Julian took us to a hummingbird sanctuary.

This the crown jewel of the Ruta Chingaza (that we'll be publishing in October). It is the route through Chingaza National Park that contains the main paramos that provides 80% of the drinking water for Bogota, a city of 8 million people.



The high quality gravel road that traverses Chingaza National Park… read more

We climbed out of the campground in Chingaza National Park to the park gate. From there, it was a huge descent to Fomeque, where we stopped for a hot meal before continuing on to Choachi.



Our partners from Conservation International had limited time, so they could not complete the entire loop. This was… read more

It's a big climb through small villages from Choachi to Patios, the most popular hill climb out of Bogota. We made a base camp near Patios for a couple of weeks.



Day and night, riders climb this hill. Every Sunday from 7am-2pm since 1974, Bogota closes 70 km of main roads for Cyclovia, where bikes and… read more

Ruta Chingaza Time Trial: After scouting the full route and finding the best loop possible, I went back to ride it as a time trial all in one go.



I began in the National Park in Bogota at 1am to make it through Chingaza National Park the following day. Julian, Nick and two other locals rode me out of… read more