Tour des stations: Becoming a figure in Munch’s “human mountain” painting while conquering the world’s hardest cycling sportive

This weekend, Climbfinity was at the Tour des Stations in Wallis. Konrad and I (Yves) did Ultrafondo: Everesting (250km, 9200m elevation). 

I’m sharing a few thoughts to summarize my experience:

On the hardest climb of the race (Thyon 2000), I felt like a figure in Munch’s The Human Mountain — crawling upwards, half-melting on my bike, clinging to that “everesting objective.” Seeing this painting in Oslo’s Munch Museum and spending 16h on the bike strangely provoked similar emotions. Maybe the museum would have been enough…

If you don’t know it: this is officially the world’s hardest cycling sportive. Don’t take my word for it — GCN said so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKvYNQh3uY (bonus: Contador, 2x tour de France winner, participated and bonked).

Konrad is basically the Yoda of pacing. If I had followed my heart instead of his pacing strategy, I would have exploded like a firework in the last third. Dziękuję, my friend!

As Nicolas Pierron (head of Van Rysel) said in this great podcast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm85g09dLlk), the limits are often in your head. A distance that feels tough in training becomes a formality when your goal is much bigger. Doubling my previous “climbing record” made me realize how true this is.

PS: Contrats also to Agata who did Mediofondo (74km, 2900m elevation) and Dami did Marmotte (133km, 4700m elevation).

The course

Before

During

After