Colpatria Tower

This guide to Colpatria Tower in Bogotá follows two riders who climbed its fifty-floor stairwell on a bicycle without a single foot or wheel touching the ground: Javier Zapata in 2000, and Francisco Villegas, who trained four months to do it twice in 2006. It traces what Villegas said was the real danger, not his legs but his concentration among identical grey steps. Listen at the base of the stairwell where an annual December race now runs the same climb on foot.