Diarios en Bicicleta

Ushuaia - December 14th 2008

A journey to remember...

Yes, we made it…
USHUAIA…
Fin-del-Mundo...
The End-of-the-World…

After fascinating 11.000 kilometers...
More than 4 months since the equator near Quito
More than 105.000 altitude meters ( that’s 100 times l’Alpe d’Huez )
106 cycling days
Almost 4000 kilometers of unpaved roads varied from washboard to salt plain and from rocks to sand
Temperatures ranging from minus 14 during the night in Peru to almost plus 40 in Argentina
A handful of rain showers in 4 months
One evening with snow
Mainly tailwinds
And… a lot of sun

Highest point above 4.800 meter
A longest climb of 65 kilometers
A longest downhill of 60 kilometers
A toughest day of 2600 climbing meters
A longest day of 162 kilometers
5 countries
7 border crossings

Irishman Sean Solon finished first
The Iron Lady Bene Maillard from France ended second
Oldie ( with all respect ) Geert Zwart finished as third with in total 39 stage wins.

It took Sean 579 hours to complete “The Andes Trail”.
An average of nearly 19 kilometers per hour

2 broken collar bones
A couple of bruised ribs
25 stitches divided over Andre’s arm and Geert’s eyebrow
One dog bite

1 cracked seat post
Tens of flat tyres

Belgian Georges van Hiel and Irishman Mick Solon completed the tour on ONE set of tyres without a flat ( Schwalbe Marathon and Continental Travel )
1 broken front fork
A few broken spokes

And a lot, a lot, a lot more…

A journey to remember…