Emanuel Buchmann sets new Everesting record – only for it to be ruled invalid – Cyclist

Bora-Hansgrohe's Emanuel Buchmann thought he had smashed the record for the fastest-ever Everesting attempt - only to be told his attempt was invalid due to a technicality in the rules.

Buchmann, who rode to fourth at last year's Tour de France, took on the task of climbing 8,848m - the elevation of Mount Everest - in one continuous ride as a drive to raise money for German children's charity Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk.

The previous record for the fastest Everesting attempt had recently been set by young American mountain biker Keegan Swenson who had completed the challenge in a time of 7 hours, 40 minutes.

WorldTour rider Buchmann then smashed Swenson's time by a full 14 minutes, setting a new impressive benchmark of 7 hours, 28 minutes.

However, the 27-year-old's incredible efforts have since been declared invalid after he breached two of the challenge's golden rules.

First, as per the guidelines set out by challenge creators Hells 500, any Everesting attempt has to take place entirely on the same ascent.

Buchmann breached this by completing his first ascent on the Ochsengarten climb, just out of Oetz in Austria, before descending its north side to then complete eight repetitions of the Heimelerberg climb to tick off the necessary elevation.

Secondly, it also turns out that Buchmann's time was invalid as the Hells 500 team take the Strava elapsed time as opposed to moving time. With this considered, Buchmann actually completed the task in a time of 7 hours, 53 minutes: 13 minutes slower than Swenson.

Therefore, with both rule breaches, Buchmann's efforts were struck from the record.

A shame considering the exceptional effort put out from the Grand Tour contender whose seven and a half hours in the saddle contributed to a total of 162km covered at an average speed of 21.7kmh.

What's more, Buchmann's choice of hill was also not for the faint of heart with the Heimelerberg averaging 11% for a full 9.41km, stats that see it come out harder than the likes of the Passo Giau. And to ensure he could get close to the record, Buchmann pushed a uniform 300 to 310w average on all eight ascents of the climb.

While Buchmann's not officially the record holder, he will likely be proud of the 17,000 raised for charity and ticking off a challenge that he ranks, in terms of difficulty, alongside the Tour de France.

'That was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I didn't think it would hurt so much towards the end,' explained Buchmann after completing the challenge.

'At the beginning, I found a good rhythm and then decided to push hard. After 7000m of climbing completed, I started feeling my muscles. I am not used to this amount of workload and it started to hurt a lot. The last 1000m have been cruel. But there were also some fans out there and their support pushed me toward the finish.'

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Emanuel Buchmann sets new Everesting record - only for it to be ruled invalid - Cyclist