Some said it wouldn’t last, not for long anyway, and Irish rider Ronan McLaughlin has regained his world record for the fastest ascent on a bicycle up the virtual height of Mount Everest.
In the increasingly popular global challenge known as Everesting, the 33-year-old McLaughlin returned to the famed Mamore Gap in his native Donegal and completed the 8,848 metres, 29,029 feet in old money, that being the height of Mount Everest, in a time of 6:40.54. In doing so he broke by almost 20 minutes the previous record of 6:59.38 set by America's Sean Gardner last October.
At the time that bettered McLaughlin's own previous mark, after he clocked 7:04.41 last July – then more than 20 minutes faster than the previous record, set by former six-time Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador from Spain, who reached his 8,848m on the Navapelegrin climb north of Madrid in seven hours and 27 minutes last June.
McLaughlin’s new record was completed last Tuesday, on the same ascent as his first record ride, and ratified over the weekend by Hells 500, the organisation that manages Everesting. The 810 metre segment McLaughlin rode is a virtually straight up too, with a gradient of 14.2 per cent, climbing 117 metres in the process; to reach the height of Everest, McLaughlin needed to complete a total of 75 laps, completing 78 just to be safe.
“I have been lucky enough to do a lot on a bike, and get a lot in life from bikes,” Mc Laughlin told Cycling Tips, where he also works as tech editor. “Undoubtedly though, getting this record again is right at the very top. I am usually my own harshest critic in terms of the achievement, but I am already super proud of this one.”
With roughly 10 laps to go McLaughlin also suffered a rear-tyre blowout, which necessitated a bike change for the two laps, covering a total of 126km over the course of his ride. The former Irish international, who raced the 2012 Road World Championships alongside Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche, and rode for six years with the Continental-level An Post/Seán Kelly/Chain Reaction, is now based in Derry, where he works full-time in cycling coaching, while still racing in domestic events.
This virtual replica of riding a bicycle uphill for 8,848m, preferably on a very steep mountain side, must be done in one reasonable effort and properly recorded on Strava to count as an Everesting, the term now given to any attempt to ride up what Edmund Hillary first climbed up back in May 1953.
The rules are devilishly simple, and brutally hard: find a single hill, climb, and repeat until you’ve reached your summit of 8,848m in total elevation gain. Short recovery and toilet breaks are allowed, but no sleeping, no doping, and no real cheating either, except on yourself. As impressive as McLaughlin’s new record is, it may not last very long.
