Injury, pain and joy at 'Mt Everest' challenge

Two out of the five cyclists testing their body and willpower in the "Mt Everest" challenge were able to complete it. Ryan Mendes and Marlon Winter-Roach rode for over 22 hours, from Friday to Saturday, at Mt Catherine in Chaguaramas to conquer 8,848m elevation.

The other participants were national men’s triathlon champion Jason Costelloe, Kirk Fanovich and Greg Downes. The riders began the challenge of a lifetime at 6 pm, on Friday.

Costelloe, Downes and Fanovich made a valiant effort, but could not reach the finish line. Fanovich rode for approximately five hours, Costelloe for 12 hours and Downes for around 17 hours.

Costelloe suffered injuries after crashing on lap three but battled hard for hours following the crash.

The challenge is named after the highest mountain in the world – Mt Everest. Each cyclist attempts to ride an elevation of 8,848 metres, the height of Mt Everest. Each cyclist had to ride to the top of Mt Catherine 22.5 times to complete the elevation.

It took just under an hour for the cyclists to complete one lap of the challenge.

It was the second challenge the cyclists tried to complete in the last two weeks.

On October 24, six TT cyclists completed the Base Camp Everesting challenge. On that occasion, each rider was required to complete an elevation of 4,424 metres – half the height of Mt Everest. The riders pedalled from Brasso Seco to Lopinot back and forth to reach that elevation. National women’s triathlon champion Jenna Ross participated in the Base Camp Everesting challenge.

Speaking to Newsday on Sunday after conquering "Everest" Mendes said, “It is one of my major accomplishments for sure. I have a lot of experience with endurance mountain bike races. A couple of us from Trinidad have done seven-, eight-day stage races but those races you ride for eight, nine hours a day, six-seven days in a row but never close to 24 hours at a time. I knew it was going to be different territory.”

Mendes said halfway through the journey the challenge became more of a mental battle. “I would say after about half of it, it becomes more mental than physical so you just have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and take care of your body, don’t get caught up in racing anybody.”

Mendes is hopeful their accomplishment will be officially recognised. The cyclists used the Strava app which records races.

Mendes said he had the app on his phone but Strava stopped recording for a while. Mendes said 19 of the 22.5 laps were recorded and Winter-Roach had a similar issue.

Mendes said Winter-Roach spent some extra time on the hill in an effort to make up for the time Strava stopped recording.

The cyclists took breaks throughout the challenge as there is no time limit to complete it. The cyclists are not allowed to sleep, but can rest, hydrate and eat. The cyclists ate bread and pasta and hydrated on water.

Costelloe congratulated the pair that completed the challenge.

“I have raced a lot with Ryan over the years. He is the one who actually got me into mountain biking and adventure racing. After seeing what Marlon and him did yesterday I just have the utmost respect for what both of those guys have done. It really is fantastic what they did.”

He added, “Marlon from Tobago also put down a superb ride being able to complete it as he is fairly new into the road cycling part of things. Truly a great achievement by both.”