Cerro San Cristobal: up sow up

The bicycle climb to Cerro San Cristóbal has traditionally been a classic test for national cycling. What’s more, “for several years it was the prologue to international competitions and part of what was known as the Tour of Peru,” recalls Wilhelm Rondon, a 53-year-old cyclist veteran who last weekend took around ten minutes to climb from the Paseo de los Descalzos in the Rímac to the top of the tutelary hill of the city of Lima.

The purpose of this first cycling event, organized by Carla Moreno Villanueva and Jaime Araucano Silva from the Entre Cerros CT team, was to resume this Rimense tradition, in addition to trying to recover the security of the place by bringing the athletes. “Cycling seeks safe and healthy places to share the sport that we like to practice,” says Alejandro Depuble. The extraordinary thing about cyclists is that even though there may be rivalries between teams, there is camaraderie here “because we take care of each other.”

This test is even for cyclists with some experience one of the toughest. It is almost three kilometers of pure ascent and where in the section known as “the garbage dump” it has a slope of 25 degrees. In short, it is a short and explosive competition and where “concentration” is needed.

To climb this hill that takes us to the point from where the city of Lima can be seen, not only is a good bicycle required, ideally light and “that has good components.” In addition to that, as for anyone who wants to dedicate themselves to competitive cycling, a training methodology with a lot of discipline and good nutrition is required.

The cletera community has resurfaced since the pandemic. Many of those competing now began to travel on bicycles to avoid crowds on public transportation. The hobby is currently such that on the day, more than 100 people participated for this climb to Cerro San Cristóbal, divided into nine categories, and there were also four other competitions in different modalities in the city and its surroundings.