Everesting Sa Calobra: A new record time with 1.3 kilos of gummy bears

Frederik has been cycling for 14 years. Since corona, he has really identified with cycling. Cycling and cycling in general is becoming an increasingly important part of his life.

I met Frederik in 2022 at the finish of the 96 Hours bike race from Ljubljana to Lake Achensee, 550 kilometres of gravel. A friend had persuaded him to take part. The motto of this event was "it's not a race unless you make it one". No sooner said than done. Although he is not the competitive type, he says of himself, he accepted the challenge. Frederik impressed not only with his performance, but also with his 33 millimetre narrow tyres and his nutrition strategy. "33 millimetres is the maximum that fits on my road bike. I don't have a gravel bike," he says about his tyre choice. After his record-breaking Everesting, I asked him for an interview.

Everesting Sa Calobra

The aim of an Everesting is to collect 8848 metres of altitude on a single climb, going up, down, up, down, up, etc. until all the metres have been covered. Anyone who has successfully completed an Everesting can submit it to everesting.cc and enter the Hall of Fame.

Thomas Martinez previously held the record on the Sa Calobra climb with 14 hours and 51 minutes. Frederik Niessen rode it on 21 March 2024 and is the new record holder.

To do this, the German, whose current "home" is his car, had to climb the ascent 13.5 times. After 10 laps and around 6700 metres of altitude, his legs were starting to make themselves felt, he said in an Instagram story. His résumé a good 2000 metres in altitude later: no pinching, no pressure, he felt good throughout.

Frederik Niessen

Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? What do you do?

My name is Frederik Niessen, I'm 28 years old and I'm originally from Berlin. I'm a doctor by profession, but I don't work as one (yet). I earn money as a road and gravel bike coach and I also do a few other things remotely. Being a doctor is currently not compatible with the lifestyle I want to live.

How did you get into cycling?

I've been cycling for a super long time, pretty much half my life by now. I didn't get into cycling through cycling itself, but because I was rather chubby as a child. When everyone hit puberty and boys started showing an interest in girls and vice versa, I wanted to fit in somehow. So I looked for ways to lose weight and that's what I did - 25 kilos in six months. Cycling and running were mainly a means to an end at the beginning. But cycling wasn't completely distant from me, it was a bit in the family. We always had a lot of racing bikes at home. My father was a freelance lecturer at universities in Berlin and always rode his racing bike around the city. We also used to cycle a lot. In short: I didn't come up with the idea of riding a racing bike completely on my own, it was kind of obvious.

The passion for cycling remains

Then I was sort of done with losing weight, but I stuck with sport because I realised I enjoyed it. That's also how I discovered my passion for the human body. It still drives me and brings me to things like Everesting. The same motivation also led me to study medicine. I find it super fascinating what you can do, how much you can do, where the limits are or are not. That's what I'm passionate about, a bit of an extreme.

Sounds like ultracycling. What fascinates you about the extremes?

In principle, ultracycling was with me from the very beginning. Long before I identified with the cycling lifestyle and before I knew that ultracycling had its own name. About a year after I started cycling, I regularly cycled to my grandma's house in Buxtehude. That was 350 kilometres at a time, sometimes overnight. Sometimes I had a pannier rack and panniers with me.

I found it really exciting to explore my own body on such long routes and somehow gain new insights every time - about the approach, what you can do better and all that sort of thing. I've also done several Everestings, you learn something every time.

After leaving school, I cycled through southern Europe for six months. At the time, cycling was so important to me in terms of training that I didn't want to give it up during a break between school and afterwards. My primary motivation was never to compare myself with others. It was much more about comparing myself with myself. Of course, I also like to do a local sign sprint or ride up Sa Calobra against a mate for time, which we did last week. But all that doesn't drive me as much as the inward-facing aspect.

On Thursday you did an Everesting on the Sa Calobra climb in Mallorca. Was that your first everesting?

No, this was my third one. That's why I knew roughly what to expect. I've already done two in Germany on the same mountain in Berchtesgaden, on Rossfeld. The first one in 2021 was a normal Everesting. Last year I did a double Everesting there, the name says it all, it simply means double.

Spontaneous thing

When did you have the idea?

I had the idea about a week beforehand, but I only decided the afternoon before that I was actually going to do it. I've been in Spain since mid-January because I'm preparing for a major event in the summer, but also because I hate winter in German-speaking countries. Among other things, I've been to Andalusia for altitude training and most recently to Mallorca from the beginning of March. I spent a few days here as a guest of friends of mine who were here for a week with their team at a training camp. Then I knew that I would have to return home soon. I live in my little car for a large part of the year. But I'm also looking forward to a real bed again. In short: my stay in Spain was coming to an end and I wanted to do a big final session, something that I would really remember. Sa Calobra is pretty important to me anyway.

Why?

I simply continue to find that there is hardly a more beautiful road in good weather. It's a dream. - Frederik Niessen

After graduating, I scraped all my money together and bought a branded racing bike, as I couldn't afford it during my studies. Then I removed the back seat from the car and travelled around Spain on it for a few months for the first time. I also spent some time on Mallorca and cycled Sa Calobra a lot, even for a while.

A friend beat my best time by one second last year. We then decided to have a proper duel against each other. We have now actually done that. As I "unfortunately" also coach him, I know that he is 8 kilos lighter and I know his performance data by heart. I could actually work out the result beforehand. I was able to improve my best time, but he was faster. I still think there is hardly a more beautiful road in good weather. It's a dream.

With all the stories, Sa Calobra has an emotional meaning for me. And I was still looking for a conclusion to my training camp. Majorca 312 Drive the route? I didn't really fancy it. And then the answer was almost obvious: Everesting Sa Calobra.

Gaining information for a major goal in summer

What was your motivation?

The biggest motivation was actually the degree, which I wanted to be remembered for. The second biggest motivation was my goal in the summer. I wanted to find out about my body by Everesting, so to speak. What is potentially possible for me in terms of power output over what period of time? How does it feel? Does it lead to damage?

Not only did you ride 8904 metres in altitude and a good 250 km, but you also completed the whole thing in 13:29 hours, setting a new record on the climb. Did you plan that beforehand?

Yes and no. Of course I had a look at everesting.cc and realised that not that many people have done it there and that the best time is achievable. I had actually expected that one or two people here would have already tackled everesting professionally.

After looking it up, I thought I could do it. I planned it with that in mind. But I would have done it even if the record hadn't been within my grasp. That was a nice extra motivation. Now I'm curious to see how long it will take for someone to take the record from me, especially now that I've already given several interviews about it.

The Everesting in figures

• Altitude metres: 8904
• Kilometres: 253.2
• 1.3 kilos of jelly babies
• 13 slices of toast
• 1.5 litres of orange juice
• 1 litre of milk

Frederik took his record as an opportunity to post his first reel on Instagram.

Preparation for the Everesting

I actually wanted to ask how you prepared yourself, but given the short period of time from "I'm doing this" to Everesting, you probably didn't explicitly prepare for it?

Exactly, in a way I didn't prepare myself, at least not specifically. On the other hand, I was very well prepared thanks to my training this year. I started my training season in December 2023, then came the altitude training camp with lots of basic training followed by more intensive training sessions. As it was my third Everesting, I wasn't nervous at all. When I set my alarm for 6am, I felt like I was going to do a normal bike ride tomorrow. I knew I was physically able to do it.

You immediately give an answer to my current question, which some will certainly find curious, others may find questionable. How did you eat?

Gummy bears have certainly been my standard diet on the bike for ten years. I worked out beforehand how many grams of carbohydrates I wanted to consume per hour and bought the corresponding amount of Haribo in the supermarket.

I knew

• I will be travelling for about 13 hours
• I will be travelling mainly in zone two
• I wanted to take good care of myself to see how much I could squeeze

and so I ended up with 80 to 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour. I divided my gummy bears into 100 gram piles and put a slice of toast on each pile. The toast was mainly there to have something different in my mouth. As an option, I like to have two things on hand for stories like Everesting. Milk on the one hand and juice on the other. I often reach the point where juice feels extremely good because it gives the impression of something fresh. But I also know that I sometimes feel like I need something with substance, i.e. something with protein. There are many good reasons not to drink milk. But I just like milk and in this case of Ultracycling, the advantage of milk is that it is liquid and goes down well. Unlike a protein bar, which you can chew on for 60 seconds before you can swallow the first bite. Bit by bit, I drank a litre of milk and 1.5 litres of orange juice during the Everest.

I drank about 13 litres of water with a little salt. Less at first, it was still cool, later more when the sun was beating down, maybe 1.5 litres per lap and later less again.

So your catering was in or on the car. How did an Everesting round work for you?

My car was parked at the top of the pass and my routine looked like this: I drove down, drove up, quickly opened the car, drank water and washed down the slice of toast with the water. Then I put the pile of jelly babies in a plastic bag in my jersey pocket. That was the start of the descent. I had half of the jelly babies at the bottom of the descent and the second half about halfway up the climb, i.e. after 20 to 25 minutes. At the top I had another slice of toast, water, rolled down again and so on. Sometimes I swallow the jelly babies without chewing them, because at some point I just don't feel like it any more.

Gummy bears come very close to the optimum ratio of glucose and fructose

This isn't the first time you've relied on rubber animals. I know from the 2022 96h bike race where you ate an apple ring every nine minutes. Why Haribo and the like instead of gels, bars and carbohydrate powder in your drink?

I think it was every eight minutes. Unfortunately, the supermarket in Ljubljana only had apple rings. I worked out how many carbohydrates I would need on the route to Lake Achensee and set a timer on my Garmin watch to remind me to eat every eight minutes. That's essentially what I did when I was Everesting.

You have to realise that I had a very scientific, rational and analytical upbringing and even before studying medicine I always had a good understanding of the human body, which I developed even further during my studies. During my studies, I tried to move in the direction of sports science wherever possible.

Our muscle cells need energy, which they get from carbohydrates and fats. If you want to maximise the intake of carbohydrates, you need a ratio of glucose and fructose. I realised years ago that the ratio in Haribo is pretty close to the optimum. Gummy bears consist mainly of glucose syrup and to a lesser extent of household sugar (double sugar from fructose and glucose).

Are there any disadvantages to gummy bears?

If you wanted to find a weak point in gummy bears, it would be that they only contain quickly digestible carbohydrates. This means that they enter the bloodstream quickly, but the effect is also quickly over. However, this is comparable to gels. You would have to use longer-chain maltodextrins, for example. The dosing intervals for gummy bears should therefore be kept quite short. 20 minutes has proved to be suitable for me. I did the same with Everesting.

Differentiation of water and energy balance

Earlier you said that you don't always chew the gummy bears, but often swallow them whole. Wouldn't it also be an option for you to add carbohydrates with the water?

I see one advantage of separating water and energy intake, i.e. not relying on carbohydrate powder in your drink, in the fact that you can differentiate between water and carbohydrates. Both eating too much and drinking too much are useless. I am in favour of separating the two. You should drink as much as you sweat and eat as much as you need for the intensity at which you are cycling.

On very long tours, such as the Everesting, I dissolve salt in water to compensate for the sodium lost through sweat. The human body contains around 50 grams of sodium. You lose 1 to 1.5 grams of sodium per litre of sweat. I dissolve the appropriate amount of salt in my drinking water to compensate for the loss, avoid a drop in performance and more.

Three Peaks Bike Race in summer

What are your next plans?

My cycling goal is the Three Peaks Bike Race in the summer. In general, my passion for cycling is growing and I can well imagine that I will be doing more of these races in the next few years. I still need to organise my equipment and more. I also want to expand my self-employment as a road bike coach.