#LessPollutionMoreFitness

There’s a great biking passion at The Columbus School but not everyone knows about it. There is a lot of youth cyclist that ride at Palmas for fun, as a hobby and as a method of transportation. It’s a way to spend their free time doing the sport they love and having fun.

Colombians are great for cycling because they are used to train in big mountains and this makes them great at hills. “Revista Semana,” said: The Pilas Varta team under the command of the legendary Luis Ocaña and with runners like Patrocinio Jiménez and Edgar Corredor, demonstrated all the capacity of the Colombians in the mountains and fought for several stage victories and the red pontos shirt.

Doing Biking in Medellin is perfect; Medellin has great roads to practice road biking, it has a lot of hills and mountains which make cycling a great sport to practice. This is why at school a lot of people practice this sport.

Gregorio Correa

Correa is an 11th grader with a great passion for road bikes. He climbs Palmas several times a week and trains with a team called Rifuflex. Correa has a great passion for this sport, he started at a young age by competing in BMX and six months ago he started riding road biking.

“Well I started riding bicycles since a very young age, I competed in BMX, I lifted for a while but around like a month ago I started riding road bikes and that is what I currently do,” Gregorio Correa, 11-Grade Student, said.

Cycling is not a sport for everyone it needs a lot of dedication and effort. Correa’s record climbing Palmas is 58 minutes but to achieve this record he had to work very hard. According to “Cycling weekly” that talent alone isn’t enough: nature and nurture must come together to build an exceptional set of skills.

“I believe that the most difficult part of being a cyclist is going through the pain, it’s all about endurance, yes you might be strong, yes you might be feet but if you have no willingness to get over the pain you cannot be a cyclist,” Correa, 11-Grade Student, said.

Santiago Muñoz

Santiago Muñoz a 10th-grade students, who have enjoyed riding bikes his entire life. Muñoz climbs Palmas two or three times a week but Palmas is not his hole ride; he goes from San Diego to Viva Palmas and from Viva, he goes all the way to The Club Campestre at Llanogrande and comes back to Medellin.

“My ride normally takes, from the country club up until viva in Palmas 52 minutes, that’s my record time and normally it takes me to Rionegro 2 hours and 20 minutes,” Muñoz, 10-Grade Student, said.

Muñoz has participated in some races like: Él Giro de Rigo and in Él Campestre Cross Country Races. Muñoz also has a bike care membership to ride at Palmas, this way he can ride safely at Palmas whenever he wants, now that he rides with a motorbike behind him at all time.

“I have a bike care membership, which consists of climbing alone or with friends and someone scores you in a motorcycle and protect you from other cars going up Palmas. I’ve participated in Él Giro de Rigo and in Él Campestre Cross Country Races,”  Muñoz, 10-Grade Student, said.

Since Muños was little he does mountain biking but it was three years ago that he started doing road biking and so far, he had loved.

“I’ve been riding, in road cycling, I’ve for about three years now and mountain biking all my life,” Muñoz 10-Grade Student, said.

Andy Ambron

Andy Ambron High School English teacher, has ride almost all his life a bicycle as a method of transportation and started riding road bikes since he moved to Medellin Colombia, one and a half years ago. He climbs Palmas to school two or three times a week, as transportation and as a hobby. According to “Cycling – Statistics & Facts” Cycling, also known as biking, is a popular leisure activity and, in many cases, a means of transportation. In 2016, around 12.4 percent of Americans cycled on a regular basis.

“I learned how to ride a bike when I was a kid and from the time I was like in kindergarten all the way through university I use a bike as transportation to get around the city and go to my friends house and get to class, in terms of cycling as like as sport and a hobby a little over a year and a half. I bought my bike in April of 2017 my first year here at Medellin and I’ve been riding pretty seriously ever since then,” Ambron, High School English Teacher, said.

Ambron during the week starts riding in Avenida Las Vegas or near La 10 and climbs all the way to The Columbus School and in the weekend he goes all the way to llanogrande. Ambron really tries to use many parts of his free time to do the sport he loves, this is why he frequently goes to school on a bicycle.

“I normally start around Avenida Las Vegas and Calle 10 around like Exito Poblado and I finish when you know I either get to the top of viva Palmas or when I actually show up to school. Sometimes it is the weekend I might ride up to La Palmas and then do like a loop around, some of the times in east Antioquia, or like going to llanogrande and back through Rionegro, through Retiro and then back to down into the city,” Ambron, High School English Teacher, said.