My own personal Everest

As I near the final few metres of the climb, I give in to temptation and look down at my Wahoo. For the best part of two hours I have been avoiding doing so, but now I simply have to know. I read the only four numbers that matter: 6,652m. A quick calculation tells me I still have another 25 ascents of a stretch of road that I have, over the past 11 hours, come to know better than any I have ridden before.

I’m no stranger to cycling challenges that champion discomfort and perseverance, but even by my standards this borders on the absurd. As a concept, Everesting is simple: pick any hill, anywhere in the world, and cycle up and down it on one continuous ride until you have accumulated 8,848m of vertical ascent, the same height as Mount Everest. That, as I am discovering, is where the simplicity of the challenge ends.

The reality is that such a ride will, no matter how fit or experienced you are, push you to the very edge of your physical and mental