You may have noticed in recent months that with professional racing suspended, other than taking part in races on Zwift one of the few ways professional cyclists can fulfil their competitive instincts right now is through Everesting – climbing on your bike the equivalent gain in altitude as the world’s highest mountain.

So, step forward Lachlan Morton of EF Pro Cycling, who has become the latest man to claim the world record, taking 7 hours, 32 minutes, 54 seconds to make an altitude gain of 8,848 metres.

The Australian, who is based in Boulder, Colorado, climbed Rist Canyon, near Fort Collins, Colorado, 42 times to claim the record.

It’s a short climb – 1.9 kilometres – but not the easiest one, with an average gradient of 11 per cent.

His average power output was 276 Watts, and he went through 6,891 calories during his effort.

Chapeau.

It’s not even the first record that Morton, who is as comfortable riding the trails as he is on the road (past victories include last year’s inauguraql GBDuro bikepacking raec) has set this week.

> World Tour pro Lachlan Morton wins “unimaginably hard” GBDURO bike-packing event