An extraordinary feat
 
Zakayo Nderi is quite simply just about the best climbing specialist in the world. Today he ascended the 17 km, 1716m climb up Genting in 59min 52sec. We have the unedited video of the whole event. This gives him a VAM (“Velocita Ascensionale Media” – see note below for explanation of this term) of 1720 m/hr. This is better than the VAM of every professional cyclist in the world except for Lance Armstrong and Iban Mayo. Lance Armstrong’s VAM was 1740 m/hr in the 2004 Alpe d’Huez climb. Iban Mayo’s VAM was 1730 m/hr at the 2004 Mount Ventoux climb, which are just marginally better figures. However, Armstrong is now retired and Mayo recently tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, putting his future is doubt. note: VAM the term coined by Dr Michele Ferrari for Velocita Ascensionale Media (ie average climbing speed), and is a measure of a rider's rate of ascent. In mountain stages during tours, most of the work a rider does goes to overcome gravity, so VAM is a useful indicator of the rider's form on that day. It's also a way of standardising a rider's performance across a variety of climbs, providing they are steep and even enough (between 7 and 10 percent gradient with few false flats). Genting is a 10 percent climb. For more information on this, see the explanation at the bottom of this interview: http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2003/interviews/?id=ferrari03http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2003/interviews/?id=ferrari03http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2003/interviews/?id=ferrari03shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1
Serious numbers
Friday , 7 September, 2007