An Active Approach to Cycling Injuries: Total Knee Replacement

Recent data shows that as many as 47% of people surveyed have delayed seeking relief from their joint pain due to concerns with the post-operative process.  Although I have no definitive proof, my guess is that a greater percentage of cyclists avoid surgical intervention despite the significant limitations of joint deterioration for fear of the inability to regain their active cycling lifestyle.  

With advances in medical technology and post-operative rehabilitative care this need not be the case.  By asking the right questions and making educated decisions you can return to cycling after Total Knee Replacement, and likely at a higher performance level and with greater enjoyment than prior to surgery!

In a recent installment of this series, it was suggested that not all knee injuries require a hiatus from riding and most can be managed while maintaining some level of cycling fitness.  But when all conservative modalities have been exhausted, knee joint deterioration has progressed to severe, and the pain and loss of function leaves you with the inability to perform daily activities (let alone ride a bike), Total Knee Replacement may be the only available option.

With the help of Zwifter Seron Eaton (see his ZwiftPower and Strava profiles) who has successfully returned to cycling after undergoing Total Knee Replacement surgery, this article will explain the questions to consider.  With Seron’s experienced-based answers and informative research, you can gain the knowledge required to make an educated decision when considering Total Knee Replacement as a cyclist.

With Seron’s consent, the answers to many of your Total Knee Replacement questions can be found below.

How long did you suffer with knee pain and did you delay surgery because it would interfere with your cycling lifestyle? 

I had knee trouble and arthritis for the good part of 20 years, and after trying all other therapies (bracing, cortisone injections, platelet rich plasma), it was on to the replacement.  I put it off as long as I could and riding was definitely a factor.   

When did you know it was time to undergo total knee replacement surgery?

The level of discomfort from arthritis was debilitating.  I couldn’t stand for 15 minutes, walk in the grocery store, or do the dishes without severe pain.  The level of disability works into your head and the growing depression is real.  When I wouldn’t want to do chores, run around with the kids, or pedal my bike, I knew it was time.

How important was the ability to return to an active cycling lifestyle in the decision to undergo surgery?

Being able to ride comfortably and with the same ability was paramount.

Was finding a surgeon who could provide you a level of confidence that you would return to cycling important and was it difficult to find?

I’d been going to the same Orthopedic clinic for many years and felt confident in the reputation of their knee specialist who had performed at least 12,000 replacements.  The doc was sure I would return to a full cycling life with little loss of ability.

Did you require a specialized surgical procedure or implant?

Nope.

When were you able to resume cycling post-surgery?

I was able to begin pedaling a bike within weeks after the surgery and started to ride outdoors at three months out.  With three months of Zwift I felt pretty strong and well on my way to riding without worry.

Did you have to change your Zwift setup?

Nope.  The knee took to it like riding a bike.

Did you receive Physical Therapy treatment and for how long?

I did home PT for about a month, and continued to progressively work at home and on the bike for another 6 months with PT consultations to keep things moving forward (see the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Total Knee Arthroplasty Protocol).

When was your surgery and at what level are you cycling now compared to pre-surgery?

My surgery was in January of 2019 and I was riding well within 6 months.  My volume is now higher than before surgery and my cardio is the best it has been in 20 years.  I can pedal and sprint to my heart’s content.  Now I don’t even think about my knee.

Are you pleased with your decision to undergo Total Knee Replacement surgery?

I’m ecstatic!  It’s fantastic!  In many ways, I feel reborn, able to chase the kids, do chores, and ride.  I’m forever grateful to my surgeon’s skilled hands, awesome technology, and Zwift, otherwise the pack would have left me to the wolves before too long. 

Do the Research to Best Make This Very Difficult Decision

While the decision to undergo Total Knee Replacement surgery is not one you should make without considerable thought, research, and preparation, it need not be avoided purely for the fear of never being able to ride again.  Knee replacement is a major surgery and the rehabilitation is extensive and demanding, but when all other options have been explored, it quite possibly may be the best decision you could make.  It was for Seron.  Ride on!

Was it the correct decision for you?

Have you undergone Total Knee Replacement and returned to an active cycling lifestyle?  Tell your fellow Zwifters about it. Comment below!

        

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Review: The Breakaway App: A Glimpse of Future Zwift?

Call me a sucker or a sheep, but around a month ago, Facebook popped up an ad for an intriguing app, and I took the bait.

(Incidentally, this is how I discovered Zwift back in 2015. So I’ve learned to pay attention to Facebook ads, as they’ve turned into a nice discovery tool for all things cycling, including terribly ugly jerseys from oddly-named overseas companies.)

The app is called “The Breakaway” (breakaway.app) and it bills itself as “The Ultimate Cycling Training Companion”. They summarize the app like this:

The Breakaway analyzes your power data and provides Insight with actionable next steps. We break your efforts into Power Skills, and then show you the 12 Power Intervals that you can work on. We offer Challenges to help you improve specific skills and we track you and keep you honest on getting the work done.

Where Do I Stand?

There are two kinds of cyclists: those who constantly compare themselves to others, and those who don’t. The first group would call themselves “competitive”, and you’ll find them racing on the weekends and chasing Strava KOMs whenever the wind is favorable. The second group would call themselves “non-competitive” and say things like “the joy is in the journey” and “I’m just trying to be the best me I can be” while taking exploratory gravel rides and hunting Zwift route badges.

I’m firmly in the first camp, and have a hard time even understanding how someone can live in the second camp. Here’s what’s fun, though: The Breakaway appeals to both camps.

When you first install the app and hook it into your Strava account, it will read in your historic data and display a chart ranking your performance using The Breakaway’s proprietary metrics. Here’s what my charts look like:

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This is fascinating stuff. First, the chart shows your power not just on a simple 20-minute interval (or ZwiftPower’s 4 rider phenotype intervals), but on 12 different time intervals (The Breakaway calls them “Power Skills”):

• 15 seconds
• 30 seconds
• 1 minute
• 2 minutes
• 3 minutes
• 5 minutes
• 10 minutes
• 15 minutes
• 20 minutes
• 30 minutes
• 45 minutes
• 60 minutes

Then it shows where your power numbers theoretically place you in the universe of cyclists. I’m firmly in the “elite” camp, which is the 5th of 8 levels that shake out something like this:

• Level 8 – World Class
• Level 7 – National Star
• Level 6 – Semi-Pro
• Level 5 – Elite
• Level 4 – Sport
• Level 3 – Athletic
• Level 2 – Intermediate
• Level 1 – Beginner

The data nerd inside me immediately had questions. I loved the sound of being “elite”, but what did that actually mean? Is an elite 42-year-old as strong as an elite 24-year-old? Are age and weight figured into the equation?

I reached out to The Breakaway, and founder Jordan Kobert wrote back. Jordan is a lifelong cyclist who was one of Strava’s first employees (employee #8, Strava user #30). Here’s how he explained the level rankings:

Our benchmarks are the standard for performance across male and female efforts in our 12 defined PowerSkills (15 seconds all the way up to 60 minutes). So when you see your ranking, this isn’t against anyone else, or a leaderboard, but against what’s possible. We built this by looking at male and female world-class performances, then adjusting for performance/age degradation and accounting for body weight. The beauty of this is it’s a standard way of measuring, not a leaderboard of thousands. 

We look at the percentile breakdowns for each category and as we developed this, checked it against other sports, benchmarks, and current and former professional athlete data. We are continuing to dial this data as we learn but we’re incredibly confident in the results and we continue to stress test this with new results, data, etc. Some areas are easier than others. For example, we can look at age-group data for certain things like track events, timed criteriums, etc. The reality though is that there isn’t a benchmark or “defined standard” for what a 46-year-old man or woman can do in 45 min power. So we’re inventing this as we go to create a fun and engaging way to stay motivated and track your progress.

Defining ‘Elite’ is different if you’re 35 vs 65. Watts are also a meaningless number if they’re not looked at on a weight-based standard. Leaderboards are great but more and more, if you’re not in the top echelon they lose meaning. What we’ve heard over and over again from customers is they want to know how they’re doing against themselves, people like them, and their inner circle of friends/training partners…

That’s a solid answer. And of course Jordan is right: there simply is no objective standard available which says “If you’re a X-year-old male and weigh X your 15s power of X places you at the semi-pro level.” The closest thing to such a standard may be Coggan’s chart which shows rankings based on 5-second, 1 minute, 5 minute, and FTP. But that chart doesn’t take age into account, and it ranks me somewhere between a Cat 5 and a Cat 3.

So I’m going to go with The Breakaway’s “Elite” status. It feels much better.

What The Breakaway’s level says to me is that I’m performing at an Elite level for my age. And they take weight into account as well, so if I dropped 10 pounds but kept my power numbers the same, I’d move closer to the higher “semi-pro” level. Which begs the question: how many cookies am I willing to skip in order to be a semi-pro? (Answer: not enough.)

How Did I Do?

While knowing where you stand in the universe of cyclists may not appeal to the “non-competitive” types, The Breakaway analyzes every Strava ride you post, and alerts you when you get a PR, 2nd best, or 3rd best for any of the 12 Power Skills. Even if you’re only comparing yourself to yourself, seeing that you set a new 2-minute power PR feels good.

Screenshots from my Achievements page:

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It’s worth noting that you’ll only see new PRs if you pay for the app. (You can also sign up for the free month-long trial to check it out. More on that below.)

What Should I Do Next?

So The Breakaway can tell you your “Level”, and track new PRs. But neither of those features tells you how to improve. And this, dear reader, is where I see massive potential for The Breakaway.

They’ve already created a “Challenges” feature where you can choose to work on a particular power interval in order to level up. For example, the app tells me if I added 25 watts to my 15-second power, I would move up to the semi-pro level. And if I decide to set that goal, I’m now given a screen with video tips from founding team member Christian Vande Velde as well as recommended workouts.

Here’s what my screen looks like:

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The “Challenges” idea is a good one, and well-developed in the app. But the biggest weakness I see is a lack of training direction. Christian’s videos offer some very high-level tips focused on how to perform best when testing your power, but they don’t tell you how to train to improve.

There are some recommended workouts listed which vary depending on which Challenge you take on, but they seem to all be pulled from Peloton (*gasp!*) – you would need to manually create them in Zwift in order to execute them in Erg mode.

It’s early days for The Breakaway. But if they could integrate the app with Zwift so you could click a button and pop the recommended workout into your Zwift workouts folder, it would be a killer training tool, as long as the workouts were solid.

I would also love to see them add more videos from coaches – explaining key principles for training 15-second power, for example. I think we’ll see this eventually, as Jordan explained to me, “…we are very early and we have a lot more coming in recommended workouts, content, and more.”

Free vs Paid

You can install the app for free, and it will read in your Strava history, showing you your current level based on recent activity. But that’s just scratching the surface of what The Breakaway was created to do.

In order to have it read in your activities moving forward, you’ll need to pay (or sign up for the free month trial). Cost is $7.99/month, or $89.99/year. It is only available in the Apple App Store at this time (sorry, Android users).

More Coming Soon

The Breakaway team started working on the product in mid-2020, with the motivation of “looking at this opportunity for how we can do more with all of the data people are generating across platforms like Strava, Zwift, and Peloton.” I’d say they’ve built an impressive product in that time – and the future is bright.

I asked Jordan if they had any upcoming features he could tell me about. He explained that they are working on a lot of ideas right now, some of which need to remain secret. But one thing they’ll be rolling out is the ability to create a “Team” to see how you stack up against your friends. Jordan says:

This isn’t another social network, but a way to invite/follow your close training partners and see how you rank. What makes it fun is you can do this with people all over the world, and at different levels. Christian here can tell you about his feelings of being ‘beaten’ by me on our internal leaderboard… 

Clearly Jordan, Christian, and the rest of the team are having fun building The Breakaway. Kudos to them!

Zwift: Please Take Note

Many Zwifters seem to endlessly clamor for more roads, new maps. And I get it. We all love new roads. But wouldn’t it be amazing if Zwift could flesh out our rider profiles, displaying metrics like The Breakaway?

Don’t get me wrong – I love what The Breakaway is doing, and I hope they keep up the good work. But Zwift competitor The Sufferfest features their 4DP (4 dimensional power) profile which includes 5-second, 1-minute, 5-minute, and 20-minute power numbers. Why shouldn’t Zwift offer all that, and more?

Imagine completing a Zwift race and getting a popup notifying you of a new 2-minute power PR.

Then imagine Zwift taking it a step further by allowing you to set a training goal and recommending workouts to meet that goal. Want to boost your 20-minute power by 10 watts? Here are 5 recommended workouts to make it happen. Better yet, here’s a training plan that will help you get it done in 4 weeks.

The possibilities for this sort of “virtual coaching” are massive, and Zwift hasn’t even scratched the surface. Yet. Whether or not they’ll develop these features or leave it to third-party apps like The Breakaway remains to be seen. But I’d sure love to see it in-game. And I think you would, too.

Your Thoughts

Have you tried The Breakaway yet? How stoked would you be if Zwift could offer some quality virtual coaching tools along the same lines? Share your thoughts below.

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The View from the Top: VEveresting Special Edition

This is a bit of a long article, but in my defence, I do have 254km and over 13 hours of cycling drama to report on during my vEveresting attempt. This turned out to be my longest day ever in the saddle.

VEveresting – What’s it all about?

Virtual Everesting or VEveresting is where you climb the equivalent of Mount Everest, which is 8848 meters, in one go!  To climb 8848 meters is a big task, so much so that Zwift has a dedicated reward if that goal is achieved.  To climb it in one go could be argued to be the definition of insanity.  However, here I waited, with members of the 3R Academy, who were equally as insane as I was, as the clock counted down to the start of my longest day on the bike.  My motivation was the desire to raise money for the World Bicycle Relief Charity, whose goal is to provide a specially designed bicycle to developing countries.

The journey of getting to this point was not your typical one.  I will be honest and state that when the vEveresting craze started, it was something that did not really appeal to me. However, in March I was contacted by George Parker-Fuller.  He had created the 3R VEveresting Academy and I was invited to ride with the group to report on it for Zwift Insider.  George had organised a 3-month training programme consisting of group rides where people would train together with the end goal being the undertaking of a mass vEveresting Challenge on 29th May compromised of 8.5 laps of the Alpe Du Zwift.  The objective was to raise money for charity.  It was a novel concept and one that appealed to me, so I was keen to attend their first training session.

The first training session was good fun and I sporadically attended additional training rides, before realising that these rides were becoming the highlight of my week.  What made this training fun was their camaraderie and relaxed nature.  The training was structured but not high-pressure.   

About 6 weeks before the main event, I contacted George and signed up.  There was no going back, I was all in.

Prior to the start of the event, I had been methodical in my preparation.  I had paid close attention to my equipment and nutrition.  The bike had been cleaned and a full inspection undertaken, I did not want a repeat of what happened when my gear cable snapped and I had to race a race a Gran Fondo with only two gears.  In terms of nutrition, I had a blend of different drinks to keep me hydrated, snack bars, as well as a big bowl of risotto, which I could dip into between ascents, to keep me fuelled.  Everything had been carefully planned, including the charging of all my tech, such as Bluetooth headphones, iPods, speakers, and new batteries added to the heart rate monitor.  Finally, I left for bed, leaving the iPad to charge overnight. 

The Epic Day Begins

The day of reckoning arrived and I was awake early with nerves.  After a large breakfast of two helpings of porridge and weighing in, I went to log onto Zwift to update my details.  I noticed I had an issue, the first of the day!  The iPad that I had put to charge the night before, had not actually charged and was sitting at 43%!  The charging wire was not fully inserted.  I could not believe it!  So, I frantically pushed the wire and hoped that in the hour that I had before the start, the iPad would have enough power to last the day. 

This did not do much for my nerves.  Still, nothing I could do now, so I logged into Zwift, updated my weight, and took the various screenshots to prove that I had configured the system properly, which is a requirement when submitting to get inducted into the Hells 500, who are the founders and custodians of the Everesting Challenge.

The Start – Lap 1

By the time I lined up at the start, I was not in a good space, mentally speaking.  The battery had only charged to 63%.  In the hour before the start, I had researched and learned that despite the iPad being connected to the power source, due to graphic usage, the iPad’s battery will drain.  The question I had was “by how much?”

As we headed off towards the mountain, instead of focussing on my own watts, I was transfixed with the watts of the iPad.  Within the first 12 minutes I had dropped 1%, so as I started by first ascent up the Alpe, I was doing mental arithmetic.  12 minutes meant that within an hour, the battery would have drained 5%.  This means that within 10 hours, it would be down to 13% and considering I was budgeting on completing this in around 12 hours, I would be down to my last 1%.

To say I was flustered was an understatement.  I was facing the reality that my challenge could be over before it began!  I gave a shout out to the group for advice and was told to turn the screen brightness down.  Despite doing this, 10 minutes later, the battery was down to 61%.  I searched on Google whilst pedalling, frantically searching how to extend battery life.  The first tip was adjusting the screen brightness, which I had already done, but then the other tips were to turn the app auto-update and location services off.  This I did and would see how I got on.

Fortunately, that seemed to stem the power bleed and by the first hour I was at 60% battery life. 

As a result of all this hopping on and off the bike, I had long since lost the connection with the group.  I could not quite work out if they were ahead of me or behind me and I didn’t have the focus to try and work it out.  Effectively, my plan for the entire event, which was to ride with the group, had exploded within the first few turns of the mountain.  I already knew I was in for a long day, but I figured the day just got longer!

As if my battery issues were not enough, I started experiencing ‘tire slip’.  As I would pedal, the resistance from the trainer would slip away and then come back.  The closest thing I have experienced is when mountain biking and you go from a hard terrain to a soft, sandy one.  It was impossible to get any rhythm.  I couldn’t figure out the cause of the issue, but I had experienced something similar many months ago, whilst cycling in my Monday Mountain Massif TT event. 

The first lap was a blur of tech issues, and feeling more like an IT Technician than cyclist, I crested the first ascent in 71:14.  I let the avatar descend and I went to replenish my drink supplies, hoping that the ‘tire slip’ issue would fix itself.

Lap 2

The second lap was marginally better than the first, with my focus remaining on the battery. By the end of the second hour, it was at 58%.  However, the ‘tire slip’ issue remained to a lesser extent.  I would cycle without issue for several minutes before it would return for a short period, disrupting my rhythm, before magically fixing itself, only for this to repeat itself.  It was hideous.  At one point, I got off the trainer and tried re-pairing the Bluetooth connection, but without success.  This was a major task in itself as with screen brightness turned right down, a lot of “pressing and guessing” was being done.

Despite this ongoing issue, I ascended in 65:47 and once again got off the bike to get fresh drinks. 

It is worth noting that despite these issues, I had made a point of continuing to drink.  Switching between sports drink and water.  During the descent, I went and weighed myself, which helped me keep track of my level of hydration.  During this rep I also consumed a snack.  I had 5 energy bars that was to last the day, as well as some sweets for an instant sugar hit, this was to top up the risotto that I would eat.  During this rep, I consumed half an energy bar, conscious of not wanting to overeat and feel sick.  

Lap 3

The ‘tire slip’ continued but I battled through and somehow reached the top in 58:16, at the time the 13th fastest on the Alpe for the day.  I realised I had perhaps pushed it too hard, but this was in part due to the frustration that I could not contain. 

The original plan that I was going to follow, had me stopping at this point and having a break.  The idea was to have lunch and change my clothes but now 4 hours into the challenge and at 56% battery, I was focussed on getting to Base Camp and there was no time for a break or a change of clothes.

Lap 4  

I pushed on the pedals to start my 4th ascent.  Nothing happened.  There was no power generated by my avatar.  Nothing happened.  I was desperate to get going because ahead of me, on turn 18, was Zwift Insider’s Luciano.  Luciano’s articles always make me laugh, so was keen to catch up to him and spend the next hour chatting.  I desperately tried to bring some life back into my avatar by ‘re-pairing’ the trainer but it wasn’t connecting.  Somehow, on the descent, the inactivity had caused it to disconnect. 

In frustration, I pulled the power lead out of the trainer, plugged it back in and miraculously the trainer reconnected.  I turned all fans off, the air conditioning unit, my Garmin 1030 that I was using for dual recording.  I was paranoid that maybe something was interfering and causing the issue.  I hopped on the bike and chased after Luciano, who was patiently waiting.

The issues I had experienced before were now magnified and as I raced after Luciano, my power graph looked like the teeth of a sawblade, and with this technical issue my “Pain Cave” turned into more like a “Torture Dungeon.”

I caught Luciano and was absolutely red with rage. At this point, I’d had 4 hours of issues to contend with and was consumed by the feeling that this vEveresting attempt was doomed.  At this stage, my goal was just to get to Base Camp and I was ready to throw the turbo trainer out the window because it felt like I’d suffered more technical issues than NASA.

There is a famous scene in cycling where during the 2003 Tour de France, Lance Armstrong is climbing a mountain and he gets his handlebar caught in a child’s bag.  He falls off his bike and jumps back on but he is rightly flustered, his momentum lost.  Why I remember the incident is because Lance had a teammate present, José Luis “Chechu” Rubiera alongside him.  What is often overlooked during that incident is that it is Chechu who paces Lance back into the group that he was dropped from and it was Chechu that helped Lance regain his composure.  Luciano was to be my Chechu.

Luciano could see I was having massive trouble as my power was fluctuating as I battled my trainer and so very calmly we troubleshot the problem.  This is what we did:

1. Unplugged the trainer.
2. Repositioned a fan by the trainer to cool it.
3. Waited several minutes.
4. Re-plugged in the trainer.
5. Reconnected the trainer to Zwift.

Bingo!  It worked.  As if by magic, the power issues had disappeared.  There was no ‘tire slip’ and with that we shot off up the mountain.  I stayed glued to the wheel of Luciano, who kept a strong pace, and we reached the top in a time of 61:25, my second fastest.  In retrospect, I think the fast time was due to the adrenalin because of the roadside fix.

It had been an eventful 5 hours and I was not even halfway.

Lap 5

Luciano had left me at the end of Lap 4, but he had helped me through the worst moment of the day.  Feeling energised by having a working trainer, I pressed on.  I was finally able to cycle unhindered and at a tempo that suited.  This was what I had signed up for. 

During the stress of the lap previous, I explained to Luciano that because people had sponsored me for doing the event, I felt this additional pressure to complete the challenge, or at least reach my first target – Base Camp.

As I reached Base Camp, I felt a huge sense of relief.  First target achieved.  At this point, I decided that once I completed the 5th lap, I would stop for the risotto that I had been very much looking forward to.

Lap 5 completed in 62:22. iPad battery now at 52%, including my own energy levels!

Sadly, with my own issues that I had experienced, I had not kept in contact with the group or kept track of their progress, I did catch a message just as I finished the lap from George, the organiser of the event and it read “I’m clearly a bit confused… just put my cycling shoes in the wash basket!”  I certainly could relate that that.

Lap 6  

With a hot meal and a working trainer, lap 6 was ironically the best so far.  I was feeling settled and climbing at a little over 3 w/kg and with the Giro d’Italia for company, I was feeling inspired (dare I say it), having fun for the first time of the day.

At this point, I was able to check-in with the group, and it became clear that up and down the Alpe, we were all dealing with different dramas of varying kinds.  George was suffering from an injury to his toe, another rider, JG had his session interrupted by his cat, causing his ride to be terminated and having to restart the challenge (fortunately, Hells 500 accepted his two-part ride).  

Towards the end of the lap, literally 1 turn from the end, I was joined by fellow 3R rider Ted.

Ted had logged on to support the team and had opted to ride with me.  I was grateful for the company. Ted is a brilliant rider and so consistent.  Every team needs a rider like Ted and I was delighted when he joined the ranks of my team for the Zwift Racing League. More so when he said he could pace me up for a lap, so it was on to lap 7, after knocking out lap 6 in 65:58.

With the battery at 50%, I was beginning to believe that I may succeed in the challenge.

Lap 7        

When I watch cycling on the television, I am fascinated when the riders enter the mountains and you have these trains of teams, all pulling one rider up the mountain.  Well, for an entire lap I experienced this, but my team consisted of just Ted.  But Ted was superb and all I needed. 

At the start of the lap, he asked me what pace I wanted, to which my reply was around 3-3.3 w/kg and I literally just sat on Ted’s wheel as he paced me up, never really deviating from the tempo except when there were slight variations in gradient.  This and the time with Luciano (post trainer issues) was the best of the day without doubt.  Ted set the tempo and I just rode. It was perfect.  After 8 hours cycling, it was all I could do to sit on his wheel.  Sadly, for Ted, I didn’t have the energy to engage in much conversation.  I just focussed on his wheel and pedalled, and we turned out another very consistent lap of 65:34. The calmness of the lap was most welcome.

Lap 8

Ted was unable to join me for Lap 8, but I felt the excitement that the end was near. However, I was soon to be visited by another technical gremlin!

As I got back on the bike to start the last lap, the trainer had once against lost connection.  “Here we go again!” Fortunately, I went into the pairing screen and reconnected the trainer.  I decided for the descent of the 8th lap, it was safer to sit on and spin the legs, keeping the trainer active and thus mitigating any potential connection issues.

This ride was certainly an emotional rollercoaster. 

To keep motivated and with the Giro d’Italia long since finished, I switched to music to help pace me.  Despite being way over 20 years old, I find there is nothing better than the Propellerheads to help you keep motivated, so I turned up the volume on my mobile device.  I didn’t have the courage to connect to my Bluetooth external speaker, fearing the Bluetooth connection may interfere with the trainer.  (I am sure it wouldn’t but I wasn’t prepared to chance it.)

The Propellerheads album Decksandrumsandrockandroll quite literally propelled me up the climb, topping out at 63:49. 

Lap 8 took me to 8305 meters climbed and 45% battery, total ride time 10 hours and 10 minutes.  It was only at this point that I thought I could reach the VEveresting target.  

Lap 9

I descended the mountain, spinning my legs like the fans that were now strategically located around the room. At the bottom, I made a u-turn and began my ascent to reach what seemed like an impossible goal only a few hours before. There was no heroic 5 w/kg attack, just more steady-paced riding.  I watched as the meters crept closer to the magic 8848.

Then, on my approach to turn 9, the moment I thought would never come, “Achievement Unlocked – Everested!” It took 10 hours and 55 minutes of cycling and approximately 11 hours and 5 minutes total.  Mission accomplished!

At this stage, most people would have just stopped, got off their bike and called it a day.  But I was halfway up lap 9 and couldn’t leave the lap unfinished, so I ploughed on, topping out in 71:09 and 9341 meters.

As I climbed up to complete lap 9, I told the group that I had finished the challenge and was congratulated accordingly.  However, they then asked if I was going to try for 10,000 meters?  Well, this was never in the plan and so I asked more about the 10,000 meters and George explained that if you reached 10,000 meters climbing, this achievement is also recognised in the Hells 500 Hall of Fame.      

Well, when you have done 9 laps, what’s one more?

Lap 10

The answer is a lot more.  An awful lot more.  On the descent from lap 9.  I had what I considered to be the first rest of the day.  This was fatal.  Despite refuelling with the last of my risotto, I found eating quite difficult as my body started thinking I had finished and thus started to relax.  When I got back on the bike to pedal the last few hundred meters, everything had seized up and I was noticeably down on power.  I could not hold anywhere near the 3 w/kg I had been doing minutes before and instead tried to set a sustainable tempo.  The legs had finally failed me.

As I pedalled, each meter ascended was felt.  It felt like when you are on a long ride and you have had enough, but you are literally still a few hours from home and you know it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s going to take time to get back home, and you are going to suffer.  You accept the suffering and just pedal.  It was the same feeling, just I had to pedal uphill to get home. 

As I reached turn 8, I could see I was edging closer to 10,000 meters.  I met my new target at the start of turn 7.  It took 236 km, 12 hours and 34 minutes.  I had been on the go now for a total of 12 hours and 44 minutes.

Challenge complete!     

 I was about to hit the u-turn button and descend the mountain when I got told to “make sure you do a bit extra to ensure the ride qualifies”.  Well, how much is extra?  At turn 7, I came to conclude that there really is not much of the Alpe left to do, so I thought, “I’ll just finish lap 10!” Clearly after close to 13 hours, I was delusional!

From turn 7, you can reach the summit between 15 and 20 minutes.  With my fatigued legs, I struggled the last 6 switchbacks, reaching the end of my 10th and final lap in 76:11.  A total of 13 hours and 3 minutes, spanning 241 km, totalling 10,382 meters climbed and with 39% battery remaining.

I turned the bike and let my avatar descend.        

Summary

By the time my avatar had come to a natural stop at the base of the Alpe I had cycled 254 km, a moving time of 13 hours and 15 minutes, climbing over 10,000 meters in the process.  This was by far my longest day in the saddle, the furthest I had cycled and the most I had ever climbed.  Along the way, I had written my name into the Hells 500 Hall of Fame and most importantly, raised money for the World Bicycle Relief charity.

Looking back on the event, it is easy to see why many people attempt vEveresting but don’t complete it.  There are many factors that need to line up for you to succeed and often many of these variables are out of your control.  You can do all the training, but if there is any form of technical issue, then it can be “game over.” 

Training, pacing each climb appropriately, a proper fuelling strategy and good equipment will only take you ¾ of the way up the mountain, you also need a degree of good luck, or a ‘Luciano’ or ‘Ted’ to help you in your time of crisis.  The margins of success and failure are slim, I was fortunate to achieve my target so that, on this occasion, there was a happy ending.  Ride On!

*A special thanks to George Parker-Fuller and the 3R Academy for making the day a memorable one.  There is still chance to sponsor me / the Team for undertaking the event, raising money for the World Bicycle Relief Charity: Fundraising for World Bicycle Relief

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