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Chile - andes pacifico race + other riding locations

2K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  thegromit 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

I just paid for my race entry to andes pacifico race and got my plane ticket to Santiago. Jan 26 - March 10.

I'll have about 2 weeks before the race so I had a couple of questions for all you Chileans.

What towns would you suggest for me to goto that has a lot of riding?
Is anyone on here going to race and want to meet up and ride before?
Do you know of any good spanish schools, if so what town and whats the name?
Whats weather like for February?

Thanks for your time can't wait to get down there and ride!
 
#2 ·
Hi Gromit,
Did not see this thread until now. For lift-assisted near Santiago, there is the La Parva bike park. For pedaling up, you have Las Varas:

https://app.strava.com/activities/50741123

Part-way up the climb, there is a little booth, with a lady in it that charges 1500 Chilean Pesos (two and a half bucks). I believe most of this area is private property, hence the charge.

There is also El Durazno bike park. I haven't ridden there, so no specific advice.

February in Santiago will be hot, dry, and sunny. Similar to maybe San Bernardino/Riverside areas in August. Not much air conditioning in Chile.

The coast near Santiago is much more comfortable. Within a few miles of the coast in never gets too hot. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar are nice places to spend some time. There are some places with more XC/trailish type riding. I don't know of any places that are shuttle-able.

https://app.strava.com/activities/138736403

The south-easternmost part of that GPS track is where the nice single-tracks are.

The lake district is a 10-12 hour drive south of Santiago, and feels totally different. It's basically like driving from the Los Angeles area to the Cascades. Very green, lots of lakes and volcanoes. Pucon is the most famous of the outdoorsy towns in the lake district. There may be some shuttle-able downhill type riding in Pucon; I need to do more exploring in that area. I will be in Pucon during February and March, if you will be that far south, and want to meet up and ride.

There are tons of Spanish schools and instructors in Chile, finding one in any touristy place should be no problem. The only one that I have been to in Chile was down in the southern part of the lake district in Puerto Varas. Chile is a difficult place to learn Spanish because they do not speak clearly, they speak very fast, and they use tons of slang.
 
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