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Cycling

Everesting

The idea of everesting is a bit mad really. I’ve only just found such a thing even exists via this article on the Strava blog.

The concept of Everesting is oh-so-diabolically simple: pick your hill and ride it repeatedly until you’ve ascended the equivalent height – 8,848m – of Everest from sea level. The only real rules are that it must be an up-and-back along the same road and that it must be achieved in a single ride: no sleeping! Given that an ‘average’ tough and hilly ride might have 2,500m of climbing, Everesting in a day is no mean feat.

I was originally in two minds about everesting when I read about it. Part of me thinks why would you not just go for a nice bike ride with a few friends in the countryside? But then I’m also drawn to the strange sense of challenge, and slight madness, involved. Clearly it’s not an easy thing to achieve and many apparently fail attempting it. The other issue is trying to get the perfect length and grade of hill to make your attempt. Too long and you’ll be doing a very long ride indeed and get too tired, too short and steep and your knees will probably want to explode.

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The two cyclists in the Strava blog did 68 reps of Firle Beacon which is 128m of climbing. Read the article for the full sense of the struggle they went through and sense of achievement. Then go and look at their respective activities on Strava and give them some kudos! Maybe in a couple of years from now I’ll give it a go. Chapeau as they say.

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Images © Andy Waterman