Cyclist scales Everest on Regina Beach hill
243 trips up and down Regina Beach hill in one day is first for anyone in province
Brett Vancise has rider pride.
The former Campbell Tartans and University of Regina Rams receiver is understandably excited about a cycling milestone that was achieved on Thursday.
He rode his lightest racing bicycle up Regina Beach hill ... 243 times!
The total ascent was 8,864 metres — the height of Mount Everest, plus 16m.
The 17-hour, 22-minute ride, which covered 309 kilometres at a gradient of at least 6.4 per cent, enabled him to become the first rider in Saskatchewan to enter the Everesting Hall of Fame.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a total of 4,521 successful Everesting rides had been made, including 93 in Canada.
“It was a day I’ll never forget, that’s for sure,” Vancise, 35, says of what turned into his COVID -19 project.
“I know every crack in the pavement by now. I was naming every tree.”
The up-and-down excursion began at 4 a.m. Each lap began in front of the pier at Regina Beach and extended to “the summit,” as Vancise calls it, near the Esso station.
After reaching the top of the hill, where the gradient increases to 12 per cent, he would speed down to the pier area and begin the climb once again.
“There was a little breeze, but I had a tailwind on the way up and the breeze cooled me on the way down,” Vancise says. “The cycling gods and Saskatchewan gods were with me.”
So was an ample supply of Gatorade, water, pizza, sandwiches and energy bars, located near his parking spot by the gas station.
The strategy called for Vancise to make 25 trips up the hill, rest for five minutes, and then resume cycling. Total time elapsed: 19 hours.
“The rule is that you can’t sleep or anything, so I took short breaks, stretched out my legs, and got back at it,” Vancise explains.
“The tough part was doing the same thing over and over. I was listening to a podcast about the Major League Baseball draft and then the live coverage of the PGA tournament — the first one back (during the pandemic period). That’s the sports nerd in me.”
Vancise experienced some soreness in his legs and back, but nothing that would deter him from conquering Everest in a non-mountaineering fashion.
“I knew there was no way I was going to stop,” he says. “I was just worried about something happening to my bike, like a tire blowing up or losing a spoke.”
He never lost patience, even though repetition could easily turn to monotony.
“Around 4,000 metres (of total elevation), it felt like I had been going forever, and I wasn’t even halfway there,” Vancise recalls. “I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to be here all night.’ Once I got past that part, to about 6,000 metres, I could start to see the finish line.”
The session was timed in order to avoid Friday’s reopening of Regina Beach, to which access had been limited due to COVID -related restrictions. A pleasant Thursday did attract visitors to the resort community, though, and Vancise welcomed the company.
“People were really supportive,” he recalls.
“A lot of people were wondering what I was doing when they saw me going by 30 times in an hour.
“One person joked, ‘You know they make motorcycles for this, right?’ I said, ‘If it was easy, everyone would do it.’
“There was a lot of nostalgia for me. I remember being a kid, climbing up that hill and stopping halfway through to get ice cream or fish and chips.”
On Thursday, for a change, only a successful introduction to Everesting would satisfy his appetite.
Around 11 p.m., when the hill was virtually devoid of pedestrians and vehicles, Vancise reached the magical 8,848m mark, and soon exceeded by a few metres for good measure.
“There were no cheerleaders at the end of the line — no podium, no dancing girls, and no million-dollar rewards,” he says with a chuckle.
“But it’s all for the glory, right?” Earlier in the year, Vancise’s primary springtime goal was to compete in the Ironman 70.3 Victoria triathlon, but that event was cancelled due to COVID-19. He then began exploring the alternatives, the most appealing of which was Everesting.
“When I saw that no one in Saskatchewan had done it, I thought, ‘That’s got to be me,’ ” Vancise says.
“I’ll have it forever now.”