Looking to try the toughest challenge on a bicycle? Here’s your guide.
How Fast Can You Everest on Your Bike?
This Chart Tells You
Endurance Performance is Just Calorie Burn Per Hour
The best endurance athletes can burn 950–1000 calories per hour. Since endurance exercise is basically a measure of how many calories you can burn efficiently all day, that number is a great starting point for seeing how fast you could possibly Everest.
The Chart’s Assumptions
The chart assumes that you too can burn 950 calories per hour for an essentially unlimited amount of time and judges how long it would take you based on those energy demands. The heavier you are, the more energy it takes to do the climb, but heaviness does not equal energy availability. A tiny professional cyclist’s body can mobilize and utilize calories just as fast as yours can (and probably faster) no matter your weight.
It also assumes that everything goes well, that you’ve picked out a good, steep course where you lose essentially nothing to wind resistance on the way up (>14% grade), and that you’re aerodynamic and fast on the way back down. It’s passed calibration against the times of some of the top Everesters, so it’s a good measure of what you may be able to do. That is, if you can keep pumping out the watts for 7–10 hours.
So where do you end up? Or do you think you can do better than my graph predicts? It’s possible. Some people can grab 1,000 or even 1,100 calories per hour, letting them potentially ride at an average of 320 watts for the whole thing. That would put them at a sub 6 hour Everest. It may be physically possible, but it’s pretty darn unlikely. They’d have to climb at an average of 373 watts for a total of 312 minutes. Wow. If someone does, they’re really at the limits of human performance, but I just don’t think it’s possible. But maybe Hugh Carthy or Tadej Pogacar will take a few hours this winter to prove me wrong.
Luke is a cycling coach and physiologist from Richmond, VA who rides and races bikes all over the country (though not right now). He’s an expert on the body in motion and its response to exercise and loves to share his knowledge with others. Find him @LukeHollomon everywhere.
