Everesting reaches new heights
When Alberto Contador set a new Everesting world record last month, many suspected he had put it beyond reach. Then along came Ronan Mclaughlin...
When Ronan Mclaughlin answers my call, speaking from his home on the outskirts of Derry, Northern Ireland, he asks me to call back in five minutes – he’s just putting his 18-month-old daughter Sophia to bed for her morning nap. Such duties have become a well-rehearsed part of the 33-year-old’s daily routine, as becomes clear when I ask about his training during lockdown.
“Initially I struggled a lot. My wife Rachel is a nurse, so she was on the front line. I was trying to work from home while running ‘daddy daycare’ at the same time, so training was restricted to maybe 20 minutes before Rachel went to work or in the evening once Sophia was asleep.”
There was a flurry of Everesting record attempts over the summer (see box), but this was no spur-of-the-moment decision for seasoned road racer Mclaughlin.
“I’d been interested for a couple years, but in normal seasons the opportunity was never really there to go and do it.”
Along came lockdown and suddenly his schedule was clear. Despite having good early-season form, Mclaughlin decided to bide his time and build a meticulous plan. But how do you prepare to rack up 8,848 metres of ascent – totally unlike anything else you’d normally do on a bike?
“I wanted to keep it fun, so I started off with lots of VO2 max work and hard efforts, and integrated that into chasing Strava segments,” Mclaughlin laughs. “Admittedly it wasn’t the most technical of approaches.”
After a couple of weeks of smashing intervals and collecting KOMS, he returned to high-end aerobic conditioning – prolonged bouts of riding at close to FTP, plus easy rides, totalling eight to 10 hours per week.
“I’d looked at the climb and knew the requirements were going to be riding at slightly above FTP to get over the steeper sections, then trying to recover as much as possible at just below FTP.”
He figured if he could sustain this level of effort for three to four hours in training, it would be achievable over an Everest-equating set of hill reps.
Selecting the right climb was crucial. For his first attempt, on 12 July, Mclaughlin chose a straight section of Mamore Gap, in Donegal, with an average gradient of 11 per cent. He rode up and down it 64 times to reach the required 8,848 metres in eight hours, nine minutes; the fifth fastest ever, and a new Irish record. But he wasn’t content; he wanted faster, which meant steeper.
He removed the flatter sections, shortening the climb and raising the average gradient to 14 per cent, including kickers of 17 and 24 per cent near the top. I put it to him that it’s counterintuitive to choose a hill that’s impossible to ride at much above walking pace.
“Exactly! It was a case of the devil talking in one ear and an angel in the other – one telling me if I did the steeper section, I’d have 35km less to ride, the other that the shallower gradient would be easier.”
Mclaughlin’s second attempt, on 30 July, on the shorter, steeper course needed 16 more ‘laps’, but was 65 minutes faster – smashing Alberto Contador’s world record, set three weeks earlier, by 23 minutes. Everest altitude in seven hours, four minutes at normalised power of 303 watts (roughly 4.5w/kg). The lessons from the first attempt had paid off magnificently; each ascent took around 4:45, each descent around 40 seconds at speeds of up to 86kph (54mph) and all of them executed to the letter of the plan. “Mentally I broke each lap down into different segments, with a job to do in each one: opening my skinsuit and helmet at the bottom of each descent, clicking the lap button, then a drink and something to eat at the top.”
Fuelling was pushed to the very limits of human digestion. “I had upwards of 120g of carbohydrate per hour, the bulk of which came from SIS Beta Fuel, and eating everything from boiled potatoes and bananas to energy bars and caffeine gels. I had a great team helping me out – each lap, they handed me whatever I needed.”
News of the smashed record spread like wildfire; overnight Mclaughlin became a global sensation – even among many non-cyclists. “The gardener came in and said, ‘Hey, what about that guy who broke the Everesting record – do you know him?’.” Mclaughlin chuckles.
Doesn’t it feel strange receiving more adulation now, even being compared with Contador, than he did after competing at the Worlds or winning the Shay Elliott Memorial Race?
“For me, there’s no comparison with Contador,” demurs Mclaughlin, “but part of what motivated me was hearing what Chris Boardman said about beating Eddy Merckx’s Hour record: with the right preparation, training and dedication, anybody can be the best in the world on their day.”