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The four standard bikes ridden by a team of international riders , Lischka as well as Salvatore Pennisi , Metzler Test and Technical Director , Michele Pradelli , Italian Extreme Enduro Champion , and journalist Karsten Schwersset , off on December 6th at 3:00pm local time from the sleepy Bahia Inglesa , a town near the port of Caldera on the Pacific Ocean side of the Atacama region . The climb began .
The riders all agreed that the Metzeler Karoo 4 fitted to the expedition bikes were the perfect choice and are an optional extra on the new BMW R1300GS believing that the traction provide increased rideability for the large bikes as they soon found themselves in sandy and rocky conditions .
Considered to be a challenge of both physical and mental capacity where the riders would spend considerable time above 5,000 metres of altitude in conditions of low oxygen as well as temperatures of below -10 degrees Celsius during the day and -20 at night everyone went through extreme training . In a program that included prolonged periods of acclimatisation to altitude and extreme weather the riders trained on Sicily ’ s Mount Etna before heading to South America . This included medical and emotional tests conducted by the University of Enna and local region medical teams .
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