Climbing a MOUNTAIN For The FIRST Time! – Coll d’Ordino Andorra Climbing Challenge

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[Music] 6 months ago I climbed my first 10 km climb in tenar re 10 km at 4% at the bottom of Mount ta not exactly the most prestigious climb but today I want to take it one step further I’ve just arrived in Andora for 10 days and I want to make this a training camp with a single goal I want to reach the top of a mountain so I’m staying in the middle of the Pyrenees in Andora and more specifically in the village of lam masana basically surrounded by mountains so I decided to take a cable carard to the estasia theall Viewpoint to show you the mountain I’d like to climb I am so terrified of height so I had the fear of my life for the last 5 minutes in this thing the views at the top were pretty spectacular but I couldn’t see much from the ground anyway let’s pop my drone in the air and see if we can get an even better view up there what a shot the houses at the bottom are still part of lam masana but the houses in the distance that’s the village of ordino at the foot of the cold ordino climb 9.8 km at 7.1% and that is the climb I’d like to conquer at the end of the week but during the first days in Andora I stuck to the valley between Lam masana and El Sarat because I wanted to avoid the proper climbs to ease into this week on day one it only took two kilometers before I rode into a pro cyclist Ben thet we chatted for a bit and he’s generally a really nice guy but obviously his training Tempo is a bit higher than mine so I continued solo one of the things I really want to work on in the next year is my descending I’m quite literally terrified during this trip I try to get used to being in the drops a bit more but I’m clearly still breaking too much even when the road is grade on day two I basically did the same ride around 15 km in the valley and I started to notice something I’m currently at 1,400 elevation and I do feel the difference compared to sea level in terms of being able to push my wats it’s harder here but altitude wasn’t the only thing making these rides harder I thought a valley sounds pretty flat right boy I was wrong most of my ride was 3 to 5% uphill and there’s this hill in yorts around 500 met at 8% that one kills me every time but anyway I survived now what goes up must come down so when the descends I try to explore my limits again the day after I went for a ride with Luke and Patrick from the lantern recycling podcast including a 3.7 km climb at 5% I was suffering after a shorter ride on day four I woke up on day five and thought to myself this ordino can’t be too hard let’s already try today I’m moving 5K [Music] hour well about 2 kilm into the climb I turned back so that didn’t go great but anyway today’s day six took a bit of a rest day because tomorrow is the Day of Reckoning tomorrow is the day where I need to take on cold ordino and I’m terrified because I only got 2 kilm in and it’s 10 km long so I hope I can make it to the top it’s all about keeping up the mental game because I know I can physically do it but I don’t know if I can mentally do it so I need to get through that anyway reminder of the profile 9.8 km 7.1 % the first two kilm are the steepest then it kind of evens out at 7% hope it works out see you on the other [Music] side let’s [Music] [Music] go this is very 10% or something what am I doing to myself I’m dead off for a kilometer on any section above 8% on that steep section I was completely maxed out on gear so my Cadence was super low and I felt terrible after just 1 kilm in thing is I know that was the hardest kilometer on the climb so from this point onwards it should only get easier here the gradient is better but the road surface is worse K is in 6.9 to [Music] go here it is f 4.9 to go [Applause] 7% done a bit on my vest I think before we continue today’s video is brought to you by zwift Hub I’ve been using my zwift Hub smart trainer since it was released back in 2022 and I haven’t looked back since if you’re looking to start indoor cycling and you want to buy a smart trainer you can support this channel while buying your zift Hub to the link in the description anyway back to the video [Music] 3.9k to go 6 km [Music] in 7K I can do this I can 100% do this at 1810 M altitude it’s harder to breach for me it’s starting to snow I’m almost there my thrs are freezing my legs are dead 900 M [Music] 6.3% I’m almost there I think D’s the top right around the corner I hope I’m on the mountain I’m on the [Music] Mountain oh what the hell here it is SCA and segment goldino weing did [Music] it yes I was a completely broken man but I made it to the top of C orino every day of training I went through whether it was indoor on zwift or in the outside world all of that led to this moment and I don’t just feel like I’m physically a better cyclist mentally I am confident that with the necessary time I can do anything okay maybe not everything but you know what I mean what I mean is climbing a proper climb was one of my biggest cycling goals of the year now that I achieved that goal it feels like just the beginning in total according to straa I spent about 1 hour and 41 minutes climbing cold orino that’s obviously not the fastest time in human history but the most important part is I made it to the top that being said I do believe that with better gearing because I was running out of gears on 8% segments with better gearing I would be able to climb this climb faster so I’d love to come back in about one or two months with a bit more training with my own bike with better gearing and see how fast I can get up here honestly that’s it for this video I truly enjoyed Endora I’ll probably be doing another Endora video in the future and I hope I’ll see you there again goodbye