World Most Dangerous Road

The World Most Dangerous Road (WMBR) is a 64 km road leading from La Paz to Coroico. At first paved (20km), later on turning gravel. It was build during the entire 1930's by 500 Paraguayan prisoners. The Deore equipped (no fully though, Alivio spotted) Kona bike with disc brakes and a reasonable nice front suspension, are advertised as being 2500 dollar bikes, but they are really not worth more than at maximum 950 bucks. That doesn't change the fact, that it's still an average mountainbike, suitable for the down hill day.

The trip starts off at 4750 meters above sea level where the snow is white and the wind chill, and goes to 1500m, a true down hill road. With 50 people we started off, first a lot of explanation given to us about how to ride a bike. How to change gear, sit on your seat, stear. Sounds strange, but a lot of people had never driven a mountain bike before. A girl asked me at a certain point, how she could change gear. Is she ever going to get her driver license?

The cycling starts off. You can really pick up some speed, but are not allowed to, staying behind the guide all the time, him deciding the pace. That doesn't mean you go slow, but I would have liked to set some records there.

Being more experienced in mountain biking, familiar with the bike, the front group was my option. On the gravel the leading group was so much faster than the girls-and-slow-boys, that everytime the guide stopped us, for them to keep up. But that wasn't so bad, we just had more break time.

The scenery is beautiful, high mountains combined with deep gaps. Cliffs of over 400 meters, 1 meter left of the road. You do not want to go too fast in those corners, otherwise you will be down hillling a bit faster. Like this boy did a couple of weeks ago. A girl in my hostel was in the same group and saw it all happen.

On the second last run, I was following a boy, going pretty fast, but not fast enough for my taste. Although we were told to keep an 30 meter gap, those things, especially after 60km, never work out. So I was riding his wheel, about 2 meters behind him. Not possible to pass, because of the narrow gravel road, I was chasing him for 3 km already. And then he fell... and so did I ofcourse, running over him. The stupid thing is, I was hurt more then he was, bruises on my arm and knee. But I'll life.

Het had erger kunnen zijn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNwmpLPhoHw

hoe ging dat ook alweer op de vaalserberg?

Volgens mij met olaf nog erg goed...
Er zijn wel wat dingen wat ik me afvraag, was het een fully? ( voor en achtervering )? en kreeg je nog enige bescherming of is dat allemaal niet nodig.
Fiets kost hier trouwens nieuw rond 600 euro in Amerika vast rond de 500 dollar ...
Maakt me wel weer beetje jaloers, had ik ook graag mee gedaan. Wat ik dan weer gek vind is dat die meid gewoon nog een keer gaat.. kreeg ze korting ofzo !

Nouja nog veel plezier.

Iedereen die een traumatische ervaring meemaakt mag de 2e keer gratis. Er gaan dan ook geruchten dat meer dan de helft van alle ongelukken te wijten zijn aan sabotage . En op de Vaalserberg, tsja, dat was ik. Maar ik heb dan ook geen fully, daar zal het aan gelegen hebben.