If I can swing it, because he doesn’t follow me and I can’t teleport, I’m gonna try to catch him on his final section, that is if he pauses for a bit after his descent.
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I have to give Sir Phil the new title of mountain goat. At 67 some miles in he was giving me a run for my money up the hill and I was fresh! I bow to your greatness sir! Made it just over 1/2 way up with him before that annoying thing called work called me away for another day.
I learned a couple things:
- It’s a lot harder than it would seem to pace someone when not in rubber band mode. I hope I wasn’t too much of a nuisance with my surge up, fall back, that kept happening. I think part of that may have been my internet as well, I’d be hammering to catch up and barely moving and then all of sudden, whoosh, away with you Sir Alan and off the front I would go and keep going even if I let off the gas. Almost like it buffered and then acted on it.
- vEversting was something I thought I might want to tackle at some point, yeah about that, not so much now…
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Sir Phil is still smokin’ it up the mountain! Going faster than I would. With Sir Glen for company.
Getting close! Tho the elevation includes the ride-in, so he has a little further. But he’s still nearly there!
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Can we have a little Woot Woot! Congrats, Sir Phil!! #crewgotcrew #TUHNTF
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@ediblehedge Wow - 15 hours in the saddle? That is a lot of pizza slices.
We will need a full debrief once you have recovered. Congrats!
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Chapeau… Absolutely awesome achievement.
Let us know if you’re up for the group ride later 
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Far from a nuisance Sir Alan!
Your company was much appreciated. It’s a pretty lonely day on the saddle, but a great sense of achievement, by far the longest and hardest ride I’ve ever done. There were a few moments I was questioning the sanity of even thinking this might be fun, but that soon left again 
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Thank GvA that’s over. Will do a write up once I’ve rested
I definitely need to learn how to use Zwift properly, I saw messages of encouragement which were motivating, but couldn’t figure out how to see them or reply in the companion app. Will try again when not riding as I suspect that could have been the problem 
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Thank you Sir Glen, much appreciated having a riding buddy as I was definitely slowing down on that last ascent. Briefly toyed with the idea of pushing to 10k but am pretty sure that would have broken me.
Maybe next time …
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It is definitely difficult to learn new things while suffering. That’s a whole category of suffering in itself! 
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Brilliant achievement Sir Phil, and great looking time ! Had fully intended to join you early afternoon (UK) but working and waiting for boiler repair man, turned into waiting for emergency gas board visit 
Huge congratulations, and thanks for the inspiration.
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IKR? 
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vEveresting thoughts and stuff
After plenty of food and sleep, some recovery yoga and embarrassingly gentle 30 min recovery ride, am finally starting to feel that it’s easier to move around, if not fully rested.
Huge thank yous to Sirs Glen and Alan who rode along with me for a bit, and anyone who posted encouragement in this thread and on Zwift. Hugely appreciated all of it and helped to keep me focused and climbing. I figured out last night why I couldn’t see anything in the Zwift companion app - user error running Zwift on iPad with ethernet connection and companion app only works if on the same WiFi - oops! Couldn’t find a way of seeing messages or ride ons from the past so no idea who these were from, but thank you to anyone that did.
And massive thanks to Sir Evan for the screenshots in this thread - I totally failed to take any at or near the end.
Despite getting a 1 year free Zwift sub back in Oct 2023, I held off trying it as I didn’t want to like it and then find myself trying to justify 2 cycling app subs. Only did my first Zwift ride on 6th March specifically for doing a vEveresting during the free year. Of course, I’m now easily justifying 2 cycling app subs as I only ride indoors which is way cheaper than riding outside so I’m saving money - obvious really.
On the day
I needed to be finished by 18:00 or shortly after, so was up at 03:00. 2 bananas and a large glass of water, I was on the start line at 03:21 before my body had any idea what my mind was planning.
Finished at 17:43 for a total elapsed time of 14 hours 21 mins including 1hr 44m taking it easy - 8 x 11 mins descents plus an additional 16 mins for some lunch after ascent 6. Total moving time of 12 hours 37 mins.
The Everesting calculator was pretty accurate based on weight of 74kg and climbing speed of 8km/h.
| Calculator estimate | Reality | |
|---|---|---|
| Laps | Laps = 8.5 | 8.something |
| Total distance | 208.8 km | 204.49 km |
| Total time | 14 hrs 37 mins | 14 hrs 21 mins |
| Climb time | 1 hr 31 mins | 1 hr 24 mins |
| Descent time | 11:06 mins | 11 mins |
| Average power | 169 w | 164 w |
Nutrition and hydration
Food was abundant - bananas, chocolate banana soft tacos, dates, ham egg and turkey tacos, cold baked potatoes and 2 pints of homemade ice cream which was surprisingly brilliant for eating on the bike.
Shortly followed by a massive smoked mackerel paella and 2 more pints of ice cream.
Was never hungry and never uncomfortably full and never bored of food. Much better than my Knighthood in Aug 2022, so maybe I’m learning.
Zwift recons I burnt over 7,000 calories which is certainly my record for a day. Pretty sure my knighthood was only around 4.5k.
Climbing times
With only a short 5.5km 13 min warm up on Road to Sky, I wanted to make sure I didn’t go too hard too soon with and aim for consistency rather than going too hard and blowing up. The often recommended negative split wasn’t happening.
For the 8 full ascents, I averaged 84 mins (ranging between 77 min climb 2 and 91 min climbs 6 & 8). Last ascent was about 60 mins to just past turn 7, so was quite a lot slower.
Breaks
I went in with the aim of just resting the 11 mins of each descent and managed to stick with this apart from an additional 16 min break after ascent #6 to feed cats and myself some much appreciated hot food. Went through 3 full kit changes, prepped food and ate mostly on the bike.
Conclusions
I absolutely loved the challenge and am really pleased with the my performance. By far my longest day in the saddle but never boring which probably says more about me than the task at hand.
Compared to a Knighthood, vEveresting felt easier in that the effort was more consistent which helped with fatigue management, but you can’t turn down the intensity without having to ride longer.
Of course, the satisfaction of a successful Knighthood and the delivery of the decals is way higher, but this is still a thing of beauty. Although those 7 pesky grey hexagons are taunting me.
Definitely plan to do it again on a different climb, hopefully reaching 10km, although this will likely need another 2+ hours of effort.
Or I have to get faster.
Highly recommend it to anyone silly enough to give it a go.
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All I heard was “blah blah blah ICE CREAM SUPERFOOD blah blah”…
This was brilliant - both the ride and the summary! Congrats again, Sir. Very happy for you and your achievement!
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That’s pretty much all I wrote.
4 pints of ice cream is motivation enough for almost anything 
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Fantastic write up… makes me really not want to do that now!
Amazing achievement.
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