Alee, currently on a two-year tour from Argentina to Alaska, has taken on the highest road in the world: the 5,815m Cerro Uturuncu, a mining road in Bolivia. Despite the rocky, sandy condition of the road, which forces Alee to get off and push more than he had hoped, he beat the road in the end.

Alee took some time adjusting to the altitude. After a couple of days above 4,000m, he says, “I just feel unfit, like I’ve never ridden a bicycle before. I’m putting as much power into the pedals as possible, but I’m just getting nowhere.”

I feel like I’m drunk but without the confidence.

Alee Denham

He wraps it up by saying, “This altitude thing is hard.”

Among the hardships Alee faces are -10C nights and extremely low humidity. But he eventually adjusts. “After 5 or 6 days above 4,000m, I’m actually feeling good about altitude,” he reports. By the time he reaches Cerro Uturuncu, he’s an old hand at the low oxygen thing.