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news
Box Hill (amandabhslater via www.flickr.com)Two cyclists ride Box Hill 73 times to bag an 'Everest'
A pair of cyclists have succeeded in an attempt to ‘Everest’ Box Hill – by riding up and down the Surrey beauty spot 73 times within 23 hours.
‘Everesting’ is a craze fuelled by the performance-tracking website, Strava, that sees riders attempt to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest’s height, 8,800 metres, within a single day.
Yesterday, we reported how Australian James Middlemiss had become the first paracyclist to join the Everesting Hall of Fame after riding up his local hill 64 times in a day to beat 44,000 other entrants to win this year’s Rapha Rising Strava Hill Climb Challenge.
Now, Roger Barr from Hampton and Ciaran O'Hara of Enfield are set to join him after starting their effort on Box Hill at 5am on Friday morning and carrying on until they had equalled an ascent of Everest, reports Get Surrey.
Mr Barr told the website his exertions had caused him "a few blisters and a bad knee," adding, "I feel really tired."
He said: "I've done a lot of marathons and I'm as tired as after one of them.”
The pair completed their ride just before 3.30am on Saturday morning, and he said his plans for the rest of the day would revolve around "eating and eating."
He went on: "My wife wanted to go shopping but I'm just too tired.”
He also acknowledged the support he and his cycling companion had received, saying: "It was amazing how many people got behind it.
"At 11pm on Friday a lady turned up with fish and chips for my dad and pasta for us. And at midnight there were four guys cycling along with us.”
However, he added that he and his friend had endured "a few motorists yelling abuse."
Their efforts now need to be verified by Strava for their Everesting achievement to be officially acknowledged.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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46 comments
What if you Everested a Car Park? I am thinking the classic Fiat factory in Italy. Plenty of climbing in that. Challenging ramps all the way.
I bet that would put the wind up the haters. Climb on.
Thanks for all the comments, both the positive and the negative.
I am glad of the negative as it has allowed people to come out and 'defend' what we did and why we did it which has made it clearer to me how substantial this achievement was.
It was a tough day but it was also a fun day. We had great support, I got to sit down all day and also eat more or less whatever I wanted to keep the fire burning.
The reps also became strangely addictive as other people can testify as once they joined us they didn't want to leave. It always turned into one more rep once they got to the top.
I will no doubt be doing one of these again however I will go solo in a test to see how far I can push myself. Progression will only come from pushing myself and finding my limits and thats exactly what I intend to do.
On a final note, donations would be greatly appreciated for a small charity that has looked after countless members of my family and close friends.
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/everestingboxhill
Thank You
I think it's crazy but rather I.pressive too. Makes me want to have a go and see if I could a dually do it.
Some of us cannot afford the time or expense to go to the alpse or wherever, so something difficult and close to home is a great idea.
I hope the raised a good sum for the good cause too.
Hats off to them
the reason Sherpa Tenzing looks so nervous in that photo with the union flag on everest in 1953 is because Hilary's having a proper go at him from behind the camera for forgetting to pack the garmin and buggering their chances of a rapha badge
That's nothing, I'm going to complete the 30 mile cocaine assisted cross country hop. Just as silly.
There is a rise of about 3 metres from my house to the village pub, so 'Everesting' the pub would require 2934 visits. I reckon I've just about made it over the past 20 years - Cheers !!
''There is a rise of about 3 metres from my house to the village pub, so 'Everesting' the pub would require 2934 visits. I reckon I've just about made it over the past 20 years - Cheers !!''
you've definitely earned a pint on visit 2,395 then I'd say
Bloody hell, what a load of moaning minnies.
That's a crapload of ascending and a hell of a long ride. I got bored after three loops of Mott Street/Lippitts Hill a while back.
Has anyone ever summited Everest and exclaimed, "woohoo, I just did the equivalent of 73 times up Box Hill!!"?
Bl**dy impressive effort.
Must have been mind-numbingly boring though!
I'm sure no-one is saying that this achievement is exactly the same as climbing the real Everest. But does it really matter as long as the two guys involved enjoyed it and felt a sense of achievement from it? And if they raised some money for a good cause then that's got to be a good thing, right?
I am just appalled by some of the comments on there. Instead of sitting around complaining about the particular type of cycling someone else used to raise money for a hospice for dying people, why not just donate at: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/everestingboxhill
It's not quite the same thing is it?
I have more respect for the people who cycle John O'Groats to Land's End or round the world than with this. Sure the height is the same but let's not trivialise a mountain that requires great feats of human endurance and which has claimed many lives.
I have a 1 metre hill local to me, I'm going to ride over it until I've everested. It's heroic.
I did a version of this up Ditchling Beacon a handful of times, which isn't enough to make a dent in any records. But it was on a singlespeed, so perhaps a multiplier could be used.
It's quite staggering to hear "What's the point?" from fellow cyclists. Those are words you expect to hear from the mouths of Jeremy Clarkson and the Daily Mail brigade about cyclists and cycling in general.
These guys have done something a bit mad and really, really hard within a set of rules outlined by the Everesting movement (it has to be one climb, repeated) - something I'll wager very few if any of you moany sods could do even if you wanted.
So take a listen to yourselves and wind your necks in.
If you want to criticise based on repetitiveness, there's always the omnium.
What a pointless exercise. At least doing something like climbing the Three Peaks has a proper goal, but riding up and down Box Hill 73 times is mental.
If they had climbed the Alp d'Huez, then the following cols with in a day - the Croix de Fer, the Iseran, the Galiber, the Izoard, la Bonette then this would be seriously impressive and a goal worth aiming for but to cycle 73 times up Box Hill as if climbing Everest to get a Strava prize is just plain stupid. It's cheating as well as no way do you have to deal with the affects of altitude. Who ever got altitude sickness climbing Box Hill
?
Gosh, isn't it fun (and easy) to belittle the efforts of some people who actually went out and rode their bikes to complete a tough challenge? It's still 8,000m of climbing in a single ride. There's nothing 'proper' about any arbitrarily chosen route - the three peaks is just for the sake of it, as it this. I know which one I'd rather do (Three Peaks) and it makes me respect the effort here all the more.
But since it is so easy, can we assume you'll be knocking one out next weekend, just to prove it? Think Hinault and Paris-Roubaix - in order to be credible in your assertion that it's all balls, you actually do it first. I'd be more likely to take you seriously then.
I have no desire to do anything as pointless whether for charity or otherwise. The Three Peaks challenge is not repetitive and pointless unlike climbing Box Hill 73 times ………………………....
If the point was to make money for charity, then it wasn't pointless was it ? The total elevation was a target, Box Hill is a well known climb that's had a lot of media exposure in the last few years and it's presumably not an onerous distance away for the riders.
Of course there are far more attractive challenges - in terms of the surroundings and their execution - and there's less perceived kudos than doing a much smaller number of higher peaks but doing that sort of repeat has it's own, added issues i'd imagine. The main one being boredom you'd have thought, which hardly makes it easier, and summiting a vast Alpine peak for the third time would no doubt inspire you more and have a vastly better view - neither intrinsically have much 'point'.
What I hadn't expected was the wave of negative commentary on here and some folk seem to be taking this Everesting thing waaay more seriously than it's intended to be, it's just a fun way to achieve a target. No-one is comparing the people who do it with the mountaineers tried, and some died, climbing that peak nor demanding they get the same recognition. It's an iconic image to use to give a bit extra impetus - maybe for folk just trying to get some more miles in or, as in this case, use it to do some good.
As for this particular event, instead of more posts whinging on about how it's "not as good as my favourite challenge", why don't the potential authors use that energy to do what someone suggested earlier - go and donate *.
..or perhaps I just need to lower my expectations.
* Ah, but of course that would contradict their view of it all.
.
Did they use oxygen towards the end?
And by the way, this wasn't just for Strava-fame. Ciaran was raising cash for a hospice in Northern Ireland. https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/everestingboxhill
Olympus Monsing will be the next thing then, or maybe Rheasilviaing.
Would this be a Cyclocross challenge?
Seriously this is not a Strava challenge, click on the link. You [might] criticize it as it was dreamt up by Australians, but the challenge is no more artificial than any route you choose to pick. If you need a specific goal to achieve something epic then so be it. The same people mocking this as stupid will have been applauding the blokes who took a Boris bike up Mont Ventoux.
Airzound, please provide us with evidence of your day climbing over 8000m in the Alps or something suitably epic.
I'm not mocking it as being stupid. I'm just suggesting that it's in the nature of these things that once a precedent has been set, someone else will want to take things that bit further.
Hang on, they finished at 3:30am the following day? They didn't Everest anything, then.
Try again lads!
From the Everesting site above
- It does not matter how long the ride takes, but it must be ridden in one attempt (i.e. no sleeping in between). Breaks for meals etc. are fine.
Roger Barr * First known 1 15.08.2014 Box Hill, Surrey, UK 340.7 22:02:49 8,852 Strava file Male
Ciaran O'Hara * First known 1 15.08.2014 Box Hill, Surrey, UK 340.7 22:02:49 8,852 Strava file Male
They are officially on there. The Earth takes 24 hours to rotate but it never stops rotating so any point is arbitrary, why choose the antipode?
It was a wind up, mate.
I'm only giving kudos if they did it in full expidition kit with oxygen tanks.
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