16 September 2015

It’s 8,848m to the top of Mount Everest and Adrian Jones, Principal Design Safety and Environmental Engineer at Costain’s Natural Resources Division, plans to climb every one of those metres by bike to raise money for the Costain 150 Challenge*.

He won’t be travelling to Nepal to carry out the feat however. Instead Adrian will be ‘Everesting’ – one of the toughest cycling challenges around. Participants pick a climb anywhere in the world, and then ride repeatedly up and down the climb until they have notched up 8,848m in that one ride. It’s a challenge that only a few hundred people worldwide have ever successfully completed.

Adrian, who lives in Adlington, Cheshire and is a member of the Westmead Team 88 cycling club, has chosen the 180m climb up to the village of Flash in the Peak District as his ‘Everest’.

“It’s a quiet road that’s got a reasonably good surface, and the gradient is pretty constant so you can get into a decent rhythm.

“I’ll need to ride around 50 repetitions and will clock up nearly 200 miles. I reckon there will be between 15 and 16 hours of riding, but with a couple of stops to eat and stretch, the whole feat will probably take between 18 and 20 hours to complete. I plan to start in the dark, probably around midnight, so that by the time dawn breaks I’ll have been cycling for several hours and will benefit from the psychological boost the light brings.”

A keen cyclist who has ridden up to 150 miles in a day, Adrian has been training hard for the event, despite suffering a broken collarbone in a cycling accident in May. Nevertheless he knows it will be tough: “This will be the hardest physical and mental challenge I have ever undertaken, and in some respects it’s quite a scary thing to do. The pros in the Grand Tour races might ride 3000 to 4000m of elevation gain in a single stage, and that’s over different hills not the same one time and time again. Anecdotes from other ‘Everesters’ suggest that the body goes into shutdown at around 7,000m - I can only dig in and keep pedaling!”

Adrian will be making his attempt on Everest on 20th September, weather permitting.

“If you feel you can donate and help me raise money for four worthwhile causes, I would be really grateful. And if anyone is interested in riding with me for a bit or coming to support me, I would be really pleased. The area round Flash is beautiful and there is a great village pub, so if the sun is out it’s not a bad place to spend an afternoon.”

Please click here to donate.

 

*The Challenge, which will commemorate Costain’s 150th anniversary, involves raising £1million in 2015 for the Costain Charitable Foundation’s four chosen charities – the British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support, youth charity The Prince’s Trust and Samaritans.

 

 

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