“Sumapaz next Saturday?” Tobias texted me one morning. “I’ve mapped out a loop from Usme to Verjón. It’s about 200km with 5,800m of climbing.” “Sounds good to me!” I texted back. And sure enough, we loaded our bikes into a minivan to Usme at 4am the following Saturday, so we could avoid the long & boring ride out through the city.

This is arguably my favourite route of 2025; it’s highly challenging and very rewarding. It starts with a long, fairly gentle and very picturesque climb out of Usme and up into the Sumpaz National Park — a unique 1,400 km² protected páramo and Andean forest ecosystem to the south of Bogotá. After a flowing descent past Laguna los Tunjos, a beautiful high-mountain lake, the road climbs back up through the páramo to 3,840m, the highest point of the day, before descending 20km down into Nazareth, a small village nestled in a valley between some awe-striking mountains.

Almost as soon as you leave Nazareth, the hardcore climbing starts as you see-saw your way back up to 3,700m on a truly epic gravel road with some monumental double-digit gradients. The vistas are enormous, across mountains covered with frailejones (espeletia – giant plants in the sunflower family that are said to grow just 1cm per year) as far as the eye can see, and the peace is amazing — we passed literally one vehicle in over 80kms and 5hrs of riding between Nazareth and Chipaque.

From Chipaque, a slightly less steep gravel road takes you up and across the hills to the west of Ubaque and Choachí, and onto the main road to Bogotá for the final 11km paved climb to el Verjón, and a sweeping descent back down into the city.

One last important thing: This is a delicate ecosystem within one of the few national parks that’s bike-friendly. Leave no trace — pack out what you bring in, and don’t venture off the established roads and tracks. The more “unseen” we are, the longer we’ll be able to continue riding there 😁!

Stats:

• Distance: 190 km
• Elevation: +5,332 m
• Surface: 60% unpaved, some of it mid-level technical.
• Riding time: 14-17 hours – it took us 18 hours, but we stopped a lot for me to take photos and make notes.
• Climate: We had a great day, with some sun, protective clouds, no rain, and temps of at least 7ºC all day long. But this is the high páramo, so plan for potentially heavy rain and 0-3ºC on the early morning and late-afternoon passes any time of year you ride here, or blazing sun that’ll burn you in a flash 🤷‍♂️.

This is doable as a day ride from Bogotá, if you leave early and don’t mind getting back late (it’s worth it for the night views across the city on the final descent, if you ride in at 11 pm like we did). Check the route map below for resupply points as there is nothing on the 80 km between Nazareth and Chipaque.

Props to Tobias @trochacyclingtours for mapping out this amazing ride!

Ride Gallery