Framedlight

We were lucky enough to be given tickets to see the start of the Cheshunt stage of the Ladies Tour. The event was staged in an open space in front of the council offices and started with interviews of the teams on a stage. Then children came past us on their bikes. When they had gone the whole space filled with the contestants waiting for the off. I thought they would look nervous, and a few did, but mostly they were relaxed and friendly. Laura Trott, who had just come from naming a leisure centre in Cheshunt after herself, cycled through the crowd to lead the start of the race. Then the countdown started and they were gone. We could not get to actually see them ride in race mode as the roads had all been sealed off, so we had to content ourselves with some fairly static shots.

El Camino del Muerte is a 61 km road which links La Paz to the Yungas and the Amazon. It ascends the cold Cumbre Pass at 4,650m and then descends to the sub tropical town of Coroico at 1,200m. It was given its terrifying name, the Death Road, by the Inter-American Development Bank in 1995. In its heyday around 200-300 motorists a year died as a result of veering over the edge of this narrow, no part is wider than 3.2m the width of a single carriageway, and precipitous road. It is not paved, subject to being turned in to a mud bath in the summer rain and in to a dust bowl in the dry season. The height of the road and the surrounding forest means that there is often fog and mist hampering visibility. There are no guardrails and the edge is crumbly with frequent landslides. It is the only road in Bolivia where it is mandatory to drive on the left meaning that the driver coming downhill can look down to see the edge of the road on the drop side, to make passing easier! At one ti...