Buchmann ascends 8,848m in 7:28 but he’s not the Everesting record holder
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) put in a monster ride for charity on Friday, ascending the vertical gain of Mount Everest in under eight hours.
The German climber, fourth overall at last year’s Tour de France, made the Everesting attempt to raise money for the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk (the German Children’s Fund), with Buchmann hoping to raise €10 for every vertical meter. Buchmann made his effort in the Austrian Alps near the town of Oetz, with his team saying he completed the effort in a riding time of seven hours, 28 minutes.
That said, Buchmann is not the official record holder for having completed the fastest Everesting, a title that still remains with American mountain biker Keegan Swenson, who stormed to the record two weeks ago.
Impressive though Buchmann’s ride may have been, his total ride time according to his Strava data was actually a little over seven hours, 50 minutes, and he also compiled a small portion of his vertical gain going up and over one face of a climb before taking on the other side eight times to accrue the remainder of the 8,848 meters.
Official Everesting attempts require the vertical gain to be racked up via repeated attempts of the same ascent.
As such, Buchmann’s incredible effort has been confirmed to not be an Everesting record breaker, to the relief of Swenson, who summed up his feelings in a text to CyclingTips: “Phew, glad I don’t have to try again!”
Just the same, Buchmann did put in a ride few could likely emulate, saying afterward that it “was one of the hardest things I have ever done,” which means something coming from a rider who has finished inside the top five at the world’s biggest bike race.
“I didn’t think it would hurt so much towards the end,” Buchmann said after finishing, according to a press release from his team.
“At the beginning I found a good rhythm and then decided to push hard. After 7000 meters of climbing completed, I started feeling my muscles. I am not used to this amount of workload and it started to hurt a lot. The last 1000 meters have been cruel. But there were also some fans out there and their support pushed me toward the finish.”
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