Craig Cannon, an amateur cyclist from Oakland, California, broke the world record聽for riding the most vertical feet in 48 hours, according to his . On August 7, Cannon rode聽the same .68-mile hill in the Berkeley Hills, ascending 95,623 feet and riding more聽than 339 miles. The previous record, set by Austrian Jacob Zurl, was 94,452 feet,聽according to .
Cannon, who bought his first road bike last year, prepared for the challenge by聽鈥淓veresting鈥 (ascending the聽29,029聽feet equal to Mount聽Everest in one ride) in June.聽During his 48-hour ride, he took one 20-minute nap and burned nearly 30,000聽calories.聽
We talked to Cannon about breaking the record and what鈥檚 next.
OUTSIDE:聽Why did you want to do this?
CRAIG CANNON: I started road biking last year and found that climbing was the thing I enjoyed most聽of all. For me, it鈥檚 very meditative. On almost all my rides, I focused on finding as聽many hills as I could. So, after Everesting, I felt validated but thought I would do聽something bigger.
How did you train?
I rode around 200 miles a week and a lot of elevation. I stopped drinking and took聽caffeine out of my diet because I wanted it to be super potent during the ride. I also聽needed to make sure I could I stay up for 48 hours. I鈥檇 never done that before, so I聽didn鈥檛 know if I could stay awake, much less ride a bike. One weekend, I woke聽up on Friday聽and stayed up until聽Sunday聽morning, then slept for 90 minutes and went聽on an 80-mile ride.
What鈥檚 next?
I鈥檓 going to start researching really, really difficult endurance rides. Not records聽necessarily, but something like biking around Glacier National Park two or three聽times and gaining 50,000 feet of elevation for 24 hours. Because I鈥檓 mentally able to聽do it and a little heavier than a normal racer, I think I鈥檓 more suited for endurance聽stuff.