It will be no surprise to hear that Daniela Mollica likes a challenge…
“I enjoy riding, and it allows me time away from the challenges of the everyday. Lockdown has seriously impacted the ability to ride outdoors and so this year I have taken up zwifting, an indoor virtual cycling training ‘game’. Surprisingly I have enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
The challenges it presents are real, and using GPS data it recreates the vertical challenges of climbing actual mountains around the world.
Yesterday [23 Aug] I completed a vEverest, a challenge where you ride repeats of the one climb until you reach the vertical gain of Mt. Everest; 8,848m. I spent approximately 13 hours completing 6 ascents of the French behemoth Mont Ventoux. It was a challenge of the mind perhaps more than the legs and I am super pleased to have achieved it. The total distance was 240km and the total gain of my ride was 8,990m.
Huge thanks to the people that helped along the way, both in the real and virtual world; training with me, challenging me, getting the gearing right on my bike, keeping me company, reminding me to hydrate and fuelling me. It was a long hard day but one that I was physically ready for and quite enjoyed.
Congratulations to all the other cyclists who also used The Big Ring vEveresting/Base Camp weekend event to challenge themselves and see how far they could push.
Ride On!”
