Actual Lord joins ultra-cyclist for London Everesting challenge

Jack Thompson aka Jack UltraCyclist completed his 42nd Everest of the year in London on Saturday morning riding for 10 hours in the process with the support of a member of the British House of Lords. 

The London Everest was another step towards Thompson’s overall targets of his 1,000,000: A Space Odyssey challenge. 

During the current year, Thompson is attempting to climb 1,000,000 metres of elevation, and is riding one Everest per week as part ofthat, with the goal of raising €1,000,000 for a variety of mental health organisations.

Among the supporters that came out to join Thompson was Lord Ian Austin, who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords. Austin called the Australian’s fundraising efforts “incredible”. 

A former chair of the parliamentary cycling group and member of Stourbridge Cycling club, Austin told Cycling Weekly that it was a privilege to join Thompson during the challenge.

Austin said: “It’s always great to meet people doing amazing things to help others, so it was a massive privilege to support Jack’s incredible effort and ride up Hillway with him.

“He’s doing this every week to raise awareness about mental health and money for charities treating it. I know times are tough for many people right now, but I hope people will give what they can to support his incredible campaign.”

Fuelled by pasta and Mr Kipling’s Apple Pies, Thompson completed the challenge by climbing Hillway in Highgate in the north of the capital 172 times, totalling 8,960 metres of elevation gain. 

At the halfway point, Thompson told Cycling Weekly that the great support he had received from local cyclists meant that the metres were swiftly ticking by. He said: “It’s been so great today. There was just one fella who joined me to begin with, then it was a constant stream of people. So the Everest is actually going quite quickly as I’ve constantly had someone to talk to and take my mind off things.” 

LONDON CYCLING COMMUNITY OUT IN SUPPORT

Taking on one Everest is a difficult task, but to do as many as Thompson requires huge motivation. Thompson explained that breaking the challenge down is the key to success. 

He said: “I like to break them into little chunks. So normally I break them into percentages, so 25% done, 50% and so on. 

"That way you have little goals along the way. Today, I’ve tried to do 6,000 metres so then that’s a good chunk of it done. Today though it’s been good just having the community around me, having people push me on. That way it take’s my mind off pressing lap every time I go up and down on my Wahoo so I can chat and forget about things.” 

In 2021, Thompson rode the entire Tour de France route in just 10 days. By doing so he managed to beat the peloton to Paris.

Throughout his day in London, Thompson was joined by members of the Rapha Cycling Club. 

When speaking to Cycling Weekly at the top of Hillway about Thompson's Everest, one member said: “I think I’ve been running my Strava since 2011 or 2010. In that time I’ve only just made it to over a million metres of climbing myself, so to do that in a year is just insane. We all ride a lot but to do something like this guy is doing is amazing, it really is.”