Alberto Contador sets new Everesting record

Spanish legend Alberto Contador might have retired back in 2017, but he’s obviously keeping his game tight, as he set the men’s Everesting record on Thursday. “El Pistolero” tackled Spain’s narrow, steep Silla Del Rey climb 78 times in 7:27:20. Contador beat Lachlan Morton’s three-week-old record of 7:29:57 on a hill in Rist Canyon, near Fort Collins, Colorado.

Locura de Everesting completada, gracias a vuestros mensajes me animé y lo hice, más de siete horas pedaleando y 8848 metros ascendidos. Reto muy exigente pero una experiencia muy bonita. El próximo lo hacemos juntos!
? @abikesofficial pic.twitter.com/zvih2UtQgv

— Alberto Contador (@albertocontador) July 10, 2020

Everesting has taken off as a cycling challenge over the last couple of years and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Challengers assail a climb again and again until they have tallied 8,848 vertical metres. Morton’s earlier attempt and Emanuel Buchmann’s May effort were ruled out because they failed to meet certain criteria.

Seven-time Grand Tour winner Contador said that the feat was part of testing his new line of bicycles, Abikes.

Also this week, ex-pro Emma Pooley set the women’s record with 8:53:36, Pooley becoming the first woman to clip the nine-hour mark. Her accomplishment was fifteen minutes faster than the old marker set by fellow Brit Hannah Rhodes in June.

Pooley attacked the 6.7-kilometer, 13 percent Haggenegg climb in Schwyz, Switzerland to seize the record. She celebrated by heading out to McDonald’s for what she claimed was the first time in twenty years. Earned.