HIGHER CALLING

It’s unlikely the lofty challenge that is Everesting will have escaped your notice. James Shrubsall speaks to some of the proponents of this most simple yet difficult of cycling undertakings

- James Shrubsall

The ability to suffer. What sort of pastime would embrace, grow, and applaud the tolerance of pain? When you think about it rationally, it sounds like a tenet from some sadistic nightmare. But, of course, it’s all part of cycling, and somehow we love it. As if it wasn’t already available in spades on almost any bike ride of your choosing, in recent years cyclists have been cultivating a new and interesting way of ramping up the masochism. Riding hundreds of kilometers and climbing thousands of meters without actually going anywhere, you can often do it all within striking distance of your front door. It sounds like a riddle, but itis Everesting, the act of climbing the height of Everest, on one hill in one ride (see box overleaf for details).

This particular form of self-flagellation has spent a lot of time in the news recently, on account of riders breaking records left, right and center. On 14 June Tom Stephenson set a new British men’s record of 9:02, and less than a week later on 20 June, fellow Brit Mason Hollyman took more than half an hour off Stephenson’s time while EF pro-Lachlan Morton set a new world best mark. That was later bettered by ex-pro Alberto Contador with a time of 7:27.20 just as we were sending this magazine to press.