Can Mexico’s most popular bike race survive in the murder capital of the
world? Hammering battle-scarred desert singletrack, our man learns one
simple truth: for people living in the crossfire of a vicious war
between drug traffickers, the Chupacabras 100km might be their best
escape.
Bridge of the Americas, 7:30 a.m.
We slip across the border on a quiet Saturday morning. The air is moist
but heavy with dust in the early light. With the sun yet to rise from
behind the Sierra de Juarez, the sky is the gray-brown color of the sand
below.
Six of us ride from El Paso into Juarez dressed in race kit, our legs
wobbly in the morning. We smile timidly and offer a quick greeting to
the Mexican federales standing with black assault rifles slung low
around their waists. They wave us through. “Buenos dias,” is all they
say. We turn right, toward the Benito Juarez soccer stadium and the
start of the mountain bike race called Chupacabras 100km.
“Nervous?” I ask Yohans Mendoza, 37, riding next to me.
“Yes, of course.”
“Mmhmm,” I say. I am scared, too.
“I wasn’t going to do this again this year,” Mendoza says. “Too much
risk. But my friends”–he gestures at the others–“they talked me into
it.”
