Riding down the World’s Most Dangerous Road

63km downhill; 3,500m vertical descend; 3.2m wide gravel road.  Put it all together and you have the World’s Most Dangerous Road.  Riding it down on a bicycle within 4 hours and you get pure adrenalin rush!

Definitely not for the in-experienced nor for the faint hearted, as a lot of focus is required to keep eyes on the many dangerous bends one will encounter and combining it with good control of the bicycle and speed, otherwise one may find themselves at the bottom end of a 600m precipitous cliff drop!

This was definitely one ride I was looking forward to doing ever since I heard about it while researching on La Paz. 

The road between La Cumbre (located about 1 hour from La Paz) and Coroico was called the World’s Most Dangerous Road in an IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) report, due to the number of fatal accidents that had taken place on this road.  In 2007, a new replacement road opened, and all traffic has since been diverted to use that main road. 

There is still the occasional tourist bus and support vehicles plying this road, but otherwise it is purely for cyclists to experience this thrill of pure downhill cycling. 

Wanting to be on the safe side, I went with a reputable company and ensured that I had full suspension on the bicycle.  When we arrived at the starting point of our downhill cycle, I was surprised that there was still quite some traffic on the road, but found the ride rather easy as we were riding on wide asphalt roads.

It was only after about 45 mins of downhill cycling and a mid morning snack that we realised that our real adventure was just going to begin. 

We had loaded our bicycles back on the vans to climb an 8km ascend.  The vans soon drove us into a small turning, where we could see the winding gravel road going for miles downwards. 

As I looked at the road, I couldn’t believe how it could have facilitated a 2-way traffic back in those days when the road was still operating. 

And to hear that only 30 cyclists had died so far since 1990 was unbelievable, as I personally thought that there would have been more, considering the winding nature of the road and the precipitous drop!

It was definitely a rough ride ahead with full concentration, and I was glad I got a bike with full suspension.  We hardly had to paddle much at all, but rather just ensuring that my brakes were working at all times. 

At the early part of the ride, I might have been too condescending and rode a little faster than I should have and caught onto a loose rock.  Thankfully I fell against the mountainous side rather than on the cliff edge.  I learn my lesson after that and managed my speed better.

We made a few stops so that the rest could catch up, as well as to facilitate photo taking by the bike company, which were subsequently compiled into a CD for us.  The views along the way were incredibly beautiful too though, so it was hard not to get distracted. 

We finally reached the bottom of our trail at about 2.30pm and packed up our gears for a late buffet lunch at a hotel, where we also got the opportunity to take a quick dip in the swimming pool. With the surreal and resort like feel setting, for a moment, it didn’t feel as if we were in Bolivia!

At 5pm, we got back onto the vans and headed back on a 3hr ride to La Paz, passing through some of the earlier points we had cycled. 

This is something I sure wouldn’t mind doing again!