topflightpro

Since races aren't really happening right now, Everesting has become the new big thing.

Which got me thinking: Could one Everest on a track?

Assuming a track is 25 feet high, one could gain 50 feet each lap. That would mean you would have to do about 581 laps.

Assuming each lap is about 30s - we're not trying to set speed records here, that's about 5 hours of riding. A lot of time on the bike, yes, but about 2.5 hours faster than the world record currently held by Lachlan Morton.

And if you did it correctly, you could climb to the rail, cut the turn and go straight down to the sprint lane and use your momentum to go back up to the rail without having to work that hard. I'm thinking that a shorter steeper track, like the Lexus Velodrome in Detroit, would probably be the best option to do this.

Thoughts?

nlaughton

I think it would be more like 15 feet per banking at Lexus, so closer to 1000 laps (which is still only 100 miles of course). It would be like 4+ hours on a roller coaster
The main problem would be getting your Garmin to record it properly - look at Strava files of rides at the velodrome and you see some very odd shapes.

Plus Hells 500 would probably say that the banking at the two ends of the track counted as 2 hills and disqualify you, so there's that.

DrIsotope

The rules state that the ride "cannot be a loop," so I think that would exclude any kind of track.

"Rides cannot be loops. The descent must be via the same road unless you are prevented from doing so (e.g. one-way street or one-way trail). This is to prevent kinetic gain sometimes afforded by a loop, or an ‘easier’ descent."

topflightpro

Ah. Good points. And here I thought I'd come up with a decent topic of discussion while bored at work.

Morelock

No reason you couldn't do it though. "Everesting" wasn't really a thing until a few folks thought it would be a challenge

It sounds pretty terrible!

carleton

I'd never heard of this until this thread.

It's like someone said, "You know the myth of Sisyphus? What if we made a bike challenge like that?!"

That being said, weightlifting is no different.

topflightpro

I thought it would be right up your alley, since you've already done an hour record.

Morelock

Hah. Isn't one terrible experience enough

DrIsotope

I genuinely don't understand the appeal-- but then again, I've never broken 14k vertical feet in a week, much less a day. The notion of an "Everest Week" sounds slightly less awful, until I remember it would be about 4,500ft per day, every day. I'm way too close to 100kg to participate in those kinds of shenanigans.

taras0000

Same here. I've never been a great climber, but because of my motorcycling background, I was awesome at descending. Maybe if we didn't have to cover the vertical ascent portions under out own power, then I would put forth an even more extreme challenge...Challenger Deeping! Who can descend the 35,856ft the fastest?!?!

79pmooney

I was thinking my driveway. Yes it would be a loop but really, just an out and back with a driveway width U-turn at each end and a an extended straight climb of about 1". 3' elevation gain so roughly 9600 laps.

DrIsotope

There's a street in my neighborhood that gains 381ft in just 0.80 miles-- <just> 76 reps would Everest. I did it 5 times one day and went home.

Any hill that I could feasibly repeat ~100 times would be shallow enough that I'd end up riding nearly 300 miles. There's nothing on this green earth I want to do for 20 straight hours.