HIGHER CALLING

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 kilometres and climbing thousands of metres without actually going anywhere, you can often do it all within striking distance of your front door. It sounds like a riddle, but it is 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 centre. 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