The route up to Las Palmas starts at the valley floor, but does not stay there for long. It’s 10 miles to the top, a tough climb of about 3,400 vertical feet, a journey of long ascents and sharp turns, of tense muscles and heaving lungs.
Some riders stop halfway at the viewpoint for a view of the city and do not continue. A few take longer breaks. The reward comes at the top, where restaurants, bike shops and coffee shops await, and where this month amateur riders gather day in and day out to watch their compatriots from a continent away compete in cycling’s greatest race.
“Not everyone dares to come up here,” said Anderson Murcia, 37, in Spanish as he recently stopped to drink water and take photos.
However, the top of Las Palmas is more than a vantage point, a resting point high above Medellín and its 2.5 million inhabitants. In some ways, the popular route is also a perfect place to get a measure of a sport that has made Colombia the cycling epicenter of Latin America.
Amateur cyclists take on the challenge of Las Palmas every day, but so do professionals, including some Colombians racing in this year’s Tour de France. A pro can do one version of the climb in 30 minutes. A weekend warrior will take almost twice as long, or much more. The pride is in the punishment and the achievement, and in being part of a sport that has become an unexpected national pastime among Colombians of all ages.
“Football beats everything, but cycling is the second largest sport in the country,” said Jorge Mauricio Vargas Carreño, the president of the Colombian cycling federation. “It is the sport that has the most affection among all Colombians because of the successes we have achieved at the international level.”
The roots of that connection go back decades. Since the 1970s, Colombians have been riding cycling’s biggest stages, such as the Tour de France. In 1984, Luis Herrera, better known as Lucho, became the first Colombian to win a stage in the race. Three years later he became the first to win one of the three so-called European Grand Tours won in the Vuelta a España.
Herrera passed the baton to riders such as Santiago Botero, who won the title of king of the mountains in the Tour de France in 2000, and Nairo Quintana, who finished second in the general classification in 2013 and 2015. Since then, Colombian women have won Olympic medals in road cycling and BMX.
However, their compatriot Egan Bernal did them all a lot better: in 2019 he became the first Latin American to win the Tour de France.
“It’s part of our culture,” Bernal, 26, said in a recent phone interview. “In Colombia, I think 90 percent of the houses have a bicycle. And many people use them as a means of transportation, especially the more modest ones, and over the years they have used them more.”
He added: “Everyone in Colombia is happy when they get their first bike.”
According to cyclists, officials and coaches, the main reasons why cycling in Colombia has flourished are the socio-economic situation, history and topography of the country (large parts of the country are at higher altitudes, such as Medellín, at 1500 meters, or the capital, Bogotá , at 8,600).
“Cycling has become very important in our country,” said Rigoberto Urán, 36, a Colombian cyclist who has finished second in the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Olympics. “Colombia is a country with many problems – political problems – and our history is colored by drug trafficking. So cycling has given us a kind of new image for a while now.”
José Julián Velásquez, the sporting director of Team Medellín-EPM, a professional team founded in 2017 to develop cycling in a city and region more known for notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, said many Colombians grew up riding on hills and mountains, as bicycles are a cheaper way to get around. Quintana, for example grown up in a city at 9,000 feet above sea level and had to climb steep hills every day to get home from school.
As a result, many Colombian cyclists are known as escarabajos, or beetles, for their tenacity as climbers.
Colombia is the only Latin American country in the top 20 rankings of Union Cycliste Internationale, the sport’s global governing body. In a sport dominated and centered in Europe, Colombia ranked 10th.
The coronavirus pandemic has only deepened Colombia’s connection to sport, with people buying more bicycles to get around and exercise.
Martha Gómez grew up cycling because her father was a fan, following the careers of the Colombian riders and watching the Tour de France every year. She said she learned to ride a bike as a child, but didn’t start cycling seriously until 2021. She now averages no less than 100 kilometers per week.
“Women became more about being in the gym or walking,” said Gómez, 41. “But with the pandemic and being cooped up indoors, it led us to start looking for a healthier life. When you drive up Las Palmas, you used to not see many women, but now you see more. And women not only drive on the road, but also up the mountains.”
On Sunday mornings and public holidays in Medellín, such as in Bogotá, local authorities closed major roads, including the high-speed lanes of the city’s largest highway, for the exclusive use of cyclists. On a recent morning, they littered the lanes and ramps. Several wore the jerseys of professional cycling teams or the Colombian national team. A kid kicked off in a Quintana shirt.
“I feel like when something starts to take off, everyone gets that desire,” says Sara Cardona, 39, a pediatrician who averages about 40 to 60 miles a week.
It’s not uncommon, Cardona said, to run into Colombian stars and even their European rivals on training rides. Amateur riders, both competition riders and hobbyists, like to measure themselves against the times set on well-known climbs such as Las Palmas the popular cycling app Strava.
Last week, Cardona left her house at 7:30am to make sure she made it up the mountain in time to watch the end of that day’s Tour de France stage on television. On her way to the Safetti bike shop and coffee shop, she encountered a store employee who was also cycling up Las Palmas. They made a friendly bet on who would win the Tour de France stage.
The prize: a strong cup of Colombian coffee.