“Wanna try getting the KOM on the Argentina descent next weekend?” I asked my always-up-for-craziness riding partner Tobias one Tuesday morning. “Say less!” he replied, without even pausing for breath. And that was that. Or, at least it was until he got a double pinch-flat just a few kms into what was looking like a promising attempt on the record the following Saturday.

After four or five tyre plugs and a lot of pumping, we set off again at a slightly more leisurely pace and started reframing the day. A couple of months earlier, I’d mapped out a south-north route as close to the huge cliffs on the western edge of Bogotá as I could, but I hadn’t had the chance to ride it. The route crossed the trail we were riding down, so we thought this could be the perfect way to make up for missing out on the KOM. Tobias fired up the Strava heatmap, but it looked like no one had cycled this route in well over a year – strange for a trail so close to Bogotá – and that convinced us to ride it to see why not. We soon found out, but I’ll come to that in a moment.

The Argentina descent follows an ancient trail from close to El Alto del Vino, the summit of an iconic climb near Bogotá, down to La Vega, where the climb starts. Decades of farm traffic have turned it from a trail into a dirt road, but a landslide near the summit a few years ago blocked the road to vehicle traffic, and it’s never been cleared. So there is now no through traffic on the road, just the occasional farmer driving up to a field, and the odd intrepid cyclist.

After a short and fairly easy hike-a-bike over the landslide, a fast, sometimes technical, 20km descent begins that winds its way through gorgeous mountain scenery and into ever warmer thermal floors. I’ve ridden the route up and down, and each way has its own challenges and rewards. The views are breathtaking, the people are friendly, and it’s a great way to avoid the congested main highway between Bogotá and La Vega. It does get technical in parts, but nothing that a set of 45mm+ tyres, a low granny gear (for the way up) and some decent bike-handling skills (especially for the way down) can’t deal with.

As soon as we turned onto the new route, the scenery began to change. Everything started getting a little greener, and the greens gradually became more vibrant. Moss began to appear in the double-track and the trees started hugging the road a little closer. It looked like not much traffic of any description was using this road.

The view to the west was spectacular – endless layers of mountains that gradually disappeared into the haze, with a deep blue sky behind them. And to the east, the huge cliff face at the edge of Bogotá’s high plain towered above us as we rode through rolling terrain made up mostly of Andean forest.

Twelve kilometres later, we found out why no one was using the road when we rounded a bend and rode onto a concrete bridge that spanned just the first half of a gorge. The part that used to span the other half was lying on the riverbed, 20m below us. After looking around for a couple of minutes, we found a track that led down into the gorge. It was a challenging hike-a-bike down to the river, past the intact but out of place bridge deck, and back up the other side.

By this point we were exhausted and had run out of food and water, but we soon reached a small shop, and spent a fantastic hour chatting with the locals, who couldn’t believe we’d just walked across the river with our bikes! After that, a few more kms of picturesque dirt and strip roads led us out onto the main highway between Villeta and Facatativá, and on to Bogotá.

I wouldn’t recommend doing this route with luggage because of the broken-bridge section, but as a day-ride it’s a blast. In general distance and elevation, I’d classify it as a hard route, but the river crossing and lack of resupply makes it more hardcore. It’s well worth the effort thanks to the total lack of traffic, beautiful scenery and breathtaking views. Plan for a long, hard day in the saddle, and you will be well rewarded.