3 achievements of one club (Ards CC) within a few weeks…First, we had our ex olympian and commonwealth rider Alastair Martin who completed 80 ascents of Carrowreagh Road in Dundonald in 12 hours and 28 mins, a very respectable time as a veteran, then we had our Peter Mc Lean setting a new Irish record with choosing the classic Shay Elliott to climb in the Wicklow Mountains. After 36 ascents, he completed the challenge in 10 hours and 59 minutes covering 209km!! This record only stayed on top of the Irish ranking for a week as Ronan Mc Laughlin (ex-pro) beat the time with a record-breaking Irish time of 8 hours and 9 minutes climbing the Mamore Gap 64 times and 158km to reach the hight set by the Everesting Challenge (pick a hill, and ride up and down it repeatedly until you’ve reached 8848m – the height of Mount Everest) And now Stuart Millar has set a new Ards CC record climbing Scrabo 135 times finishing in 8hrs 53mins. Stuart’s time puts him 2nd place in the UK and 2nd fastest in Ireland!! So proud of the lads and something to brag about for sure. Here below the story of Stuart in his own words, well done Stu, Peter, and Alastair (All photos courtesy of Stuart)
Stuart told us: “I did it on Saturday 18th July covering 8,884m of elevation over 8hours53minutes and 165kilometres. Two weeks out I did a “Virtual Everesting” on Zwift to get an idea of how hard it would be. One week out I did a 300km ride in around 10 hours to build up enough endurance. On the day itself, I rode the first 3 hours unsupported. Then my wife Lydia arrived with our dog Scout to support me until the finish with bottles and a food plan I had given her before I left the house that morning. My parents and Lydia’s parents arrived as well to support me and keep me going when my mind was saying “stop.” It was a good warm day. The wind didn’t provide any help up the hill. But it was nice to have a calm day. Some issues with traffic at certain times of the day. But overall a great experience and a day I will never forget” Already verified by Hells 500 website and on the leaderboards.
