Riding Tips to Boost Your Mountain Biking Read article The battle to be near the front of the pack before bottlenecking onto single track will undoubtedly send some veering off course. Sounds simple enough, but each rider must handle race speed while 200 other competitors simultaneously launch from the starting line. Rejuvenated by our Machu Picchu excursion, our next big mission is to further scout the course for the upcoming race on the Inca Avalanche Trail, identifying hazard spots and stretches to pick up pace. On the train back to Ollantaytambo, we reflect on how much we’ve learned, and how much more time it would require to truly comprehend it all. It’s gratifying to learn that Spanish conquistadors never stumbled upon this paradise while subduing so much of the Incan empire. Renowned for precision stone masonry, Incan architecture still connected harmoniously with the area’s topography. We’re rewarded with a ridiculously epic view overlooking Machu Picchu’s condor-shaped royal estate. We head directly to the base of Huayna Picchu, the site’s highest peak, and in a reverse of our usual direction on this trip, begin the 850-foot hike up its steep staircases. Luckily, the next day’s sojourn to Machu Picchu is taken via train and bus winding for several hours through jungle canopies and along the Urubamba River before we arrive at the site’s gate. foreign bikers match that taxes our lungs as much as any ride. This brings out the village’s older soccer aces, leading to a hard-played locals vs. A feast of chicken, gold potatoes and green chile sauce is still being prepared when we arrive, so we jump right into a kids’ soccer match. Several days in, we’re invited to a local barbecue. In the middle of such trails, we often come upon Quechuans tending to crops and animal herds. (Of course, the potential bad landing is less powdery.) It’s not about being the fastest-though that certainly provides fuel for the inevitable ball-busting on return shuttle rides. Mountain bikers work downhills much like snowboarders, pulling ollies off natural surroundings and striving to connect trail features with fluidity. We continue down on sections of S-shaped Incan stone staircases along a riverbank. On the other side of the mountain’s shoulder, American pro Garret Mechem, who has added freeriding big terrain to his more known mastery of slopestyle contests, lays a fast line and carves his way down the slope, scattering buckets of dirt with each turn. I watch in awe as Chase rides a rocky flank to execute an aggressive drop into an open bowl below. Bikes slung over shoulders, we march up a vertical slope to various drop-in-points allowing us to freeride the valley below. Our guide, Yannick Wende, a pro downhiller from Bolivia, explains that this Incan commerce trail is so intact that we’ll find ourselves bunny-hopping 600-year-old drainage systems. The Abra de Lares pass at 14,635 feet of elevation is a highlight. If kayaking across the world’s highest navigable lake or climbing through rainforest canopy holds an. He’s dubbed it “The Inca Flow.” And right now, I’m wondering if I’ll survive it intact. This whole traveling, spoke-spinning circus has been envisioned by Chase after seven previous trips to ride the Sacred Valley. I make a point of clinking longnecks with my friend Dillon Lemarr, manager of a riding team for bike brand Commencal, and pro freeride mountain biker Aaron Chase. Laughing over celebratory cervezas, we assess that this “shakeout ride” was already the equivalent of several typical rides back home-and we’re set to tackle 16 more such descents in the days to come. Disaster narrowly averted, I grunt off my scrapes and finish the descent. I slide feetfirst over loose, jagged rock that scorches my backside, praying I don’t become a speed bump for the bikes barreling down behind me. After about two hours of technical maneuvering, nearing the bottom and fatigued from the long flight and the ride, I unceremoniously tumble off my seat. The path is steep and fast before transitioning into rugged rock gardens and scrabbly switches that require constant vigilance to keep from washing out. It starts as a track of Andean red dirt bordered by tall, yellow grass. Our inaugural downhill, a llama-blazed, 9.3-mile trail known as La Maxima, is locally infamous.
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