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Tales from the hoppity-hop Peloton
It's a long way to the top...
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Climbing stairs can be tiring, climbing 1,318 of them is exhausting, and hopping up 1,318 stairs on a 20-inch MTB Trials bike is downright silly. But that is what Colombian cyclist Javier Zapata recently did when he broke his own record for the most steps climbed on a bike.
Previously set at 1,220 steps at the Central Park Tower in Caracas, Zapata chose the Torre Mayor tower in Mexico City, the tallest in Latin America and one of the 25 tallest buildings in the world, as the location for his record attempt.
Zapata took almost 100 minutes to complete the attempt, climbing 225 vertical meters up to the 55th floor.
"I never doubted (that I would obtain the record), but there were three sections in which the bicycle slid and I was on the verge of touching the ground with my feet", said Zapata via a translator.
Javier had hoped to hop up the Empire State Building in the USA, but his application was rejected for security reasons. He now plans to reach the summit of the 452-meter tall Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the highest building in the world.
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Note: Since we first ran this piece it's been pointed out that French trials specialist Hugues Richard rode up 1600 steps in an hour at Montmartre, France in 2000, on a mountain bike.
