Climbing the equivalent of two times Everest in 24 hours, accumulating 305,000 m of vertical drop in 200 days... In road cycling and mountain biking, vertical drop records have their fans. And in recent months, new references have been entered in the Guinness Book.
24 hours and 21,168 meters of positive elevation gain
Last summer, Frenchman Nicolas Chatelet broke the world record for positive elevation gain in 24 hours on a road bike. Setting off at 5.45am for a rather busy day, the cyclist chose the Plateau de Beille in the Ariège region to carry out his challenge. His goal: to beat Collin Patterson's world record by exceeding 21,168 metres of D+. A maths teacher and member of the Orléans Loiret Cycling club, Nicolas Chatelet finally racked up 20,919 metres of positive altitude difference after 24 hours in the saddle and 509.3 km.
"After a fast start there were some awful moments and then a change of strategy because of the weather and an effort that was too long to continue on the pace of the record that had been made on a 750m bump" he explained after his achievement. "For my part, the first 11,000 were done on a 12.5 km bump and the next 10,000 on a 2 km bump. This is clearly the challenge that caused me the most suffering.
17,753 positive elevation changes in 24 hours
It's hard to compete with the road bike for mountain biking when the climbing is done on trails. But the figures posted by Tiago Ferreira in July 2020 are still monstrous. The Portuguese, European XCM champion (cross-country marathon) has achieved the same challenge as Nicolas Chatelet, but on a mountain bike. On a 3 km long circuit, with a 200 metre difference in altitude, he finally managed to complete 83 loops and reach a total of 17,753 metres of positive altitude difference (the equivalent of climbing Everest twice) over a distance of 247.5 km.
"I thought the night would be the hardest part," he explained after finally getting off his mountain bike. "But in the end it was at dawn that I had the most trouble, especially with pain in my hands and feet. But I was well prepared and everything went pretty well in the end. I will now leave the bike aside for three or four days before resuming training because the first competitions are coming up in August."
305,000 m of ascent in 200 days
Last July, British mountain biker Ben Hildred set himself the challenge of climbing one million feet (305,000 m) in just 200 days. The Vertigo Bikes shop employee set out on this long-distance adventure in New Zealand (where he now lives). "The million is something different from other challenges I've done before. It requires more investment, a lot of time, consistency in riding and good health, focus, planning and commitment."
Ben Hildred finally reached 305,000m on 19 July after having ridden an average of 865m every day since 1 January. To do this, the Englishman took the path leading to the top of his local bike park. Then he went back down on the slopes. There had to be some fun in this crazy challenge.