After taking up riding to cope with tragedy, Mirtha Munoz has scaled the peak of extreme cycling
Reuters
Sun 6 Oct 2019 03.04 BSTBolivia’s “Death Road” might seem an odd place for a septuagenarian on two wheels.
The world’s most dangerous road spirals skyward nearly 3,300 metres, from the country’s lowland jungles to the snow-capped peaks of the Andes. Fog, rain, rockslides and sheer cliffs are main attractions. The road has likely claimed thousands of lives.
But for 70-year-old Bolivian Mirtha Munoz, the oldest ever competitor in Bolivia’s 60km Skyrace, an extreme bike racing competition, it was a natural extension of a passion she picked up years ago.
Munoz took up biking on the advice of her family and a psychologist friend after her son died unexpectedly.
“He told me … the bike could help me get through my pain, and to rebuild,” she said.
Saturday’s race was a pinnacle achievement, no pun intended.
“It’s a vertical climb, you go up and up and there’s no rest,” she told Reuters upon finishing the race.
Munoz, one of the race’s founders, says she enjoys more low-key bike-riding with her six grandchildren, though admits she hopes the eldest, now approaching 18, will soon follow in her tracks.
70-year-old female cyclist becomes oldest ever on Bolivia’s ‘Death Road’ race | The Guardian
After taking up riding to cope with tragedy, Mirtha Munoz has scaled the peak of extreme cycling Reuters Sun 6 Oct 2019 03.04 BST Bolivia’s “Death Road” might seem an odd place for a septuagenarian on two wheels. The world’s most dangerous road spirals skyward nearly 3,300 metres, from the country’s lowland jungles to the… [Read More]
