The physics of cycling’s ‘Everesting’ challenge revealed

“Everesting” involves a cyclist riding up and down a given hill multiple times until the ascent totals the elevation of Mount Everest – or 8848 m.

The challenge became popular during the COVID-19 lockdowns and in 2021 the Irish cyclist Ronan McLaughlin was reported to have set a new “Everesting” record of 6:40:54. This was almost 20 minutes faster than the previous world record of 6:59:38 set by the US’s Sean Gardner in 2020.

Yet a debate soon ensued on social media concerning the significant tailwind that day of 5.5 meters per second, which they claimed would have helped McLaughlin to climb the hill multiple times.

But did it? To investigate, Martin Bier, a physicist at East Carolina University in North Carolina, has now analysed what effect air resistance might have when cycling up and down a hill.

“Cycling uses ‘rolling’, which is much smoother and faster, and more efficient [than running],” notes Bier. “All of the work is purely against gravity and friction.”

Bier calculated that a tailwind does help slightly when going uphill, but most of the work when doing so is generating enough power to overcome gravity rather than air resistance.

When coming downhill, however, any headwind becomes significant given that the force of air resistance increases with the square of the cyclist’s speed. The headwind can then have a huge effect, causing a significant reduction in speed.

So, while a tailwind going up is negligible the headwind coming down certainly won’t be. “There are no easy tricks,” Bier adds. “If you want to be a better Everester, you need to lose weight and generate more [power]. This is what matters — there’s no way around it.”