Frenchman Aurélien Fontenoy broke a record after climbing the 686 steps of the Eiffel Tower by bicycle in just 12 minutes and 30 seconds.
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The cyclist decided to climb to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower by bicycle, which earned him a world record for the feat completed last Friday (3).
Em 2002, Hugues Richard reached the second floor of the Eiffel Tower in 19 minutes and four seconds. Then, Fontenoy surpassed the former record holder by almost seven minutes.
“For this challenge, I press the brake and I just need to compress my tire because I don’t have suspension or anything, it’s just a rigid bike. So I just press the brake and jump, jump, jump a lot!”, he said in conversation with CNN Sports.
He prepared hard for the final challenge, spending hours in the gym and practicing his jumps with a rope to achieve the impressive feat.
This is not Fontenoy’s first challenge. Previously, he also conquered other buildings in Paris, as well as the TV Tower in Tallinn, Estonia.
“I started four years ago on the Trinity Tour and I was supposed to go to the Eiffel Tower afterwards. But [veio] Covid-19, then the Olympic Games, then construction and painting [da torre]. So, it took a lot of work to organize everything”, he explained.
“We only had one chance. The last record was in 2002 and we needed 20 years to create a new challenge here, because it takes a lot of work to organize it. So I said I didn’t want to lose. So, yes, it’s a little stress.”
Fortunately, the organization’s stress paid off. “When I arrived [à linha de chegada]I was destroyed because it’s 12 minutes, 100% [de esforço] for 12 minutes. [Mas] I was super happy,” he added.
Fontenoy, who retired as a professional mountain biker five years ago, is successful with his TikTok profile, where he has more than 1 million followers.
So he also took advantage of the exciting time to create content. “My idea was to create more content and [atrair] a larger audience. And it was also a good idea to show what the sport is about and do something crazy that we haven’t done in the sport yet.”
And, even with this recent achievement, Fontenoy is still not satisfied. “My plan is to climb the biggest towers. So I’m already in contact with other towers in the world. The ultimate goal will be to climb the Burj Khalifathe tallest tower in the world.”
@aurelienfontenoy I broke the world record for climbing the Eiffel Tower by mountain bike!!!! 686 steps to climb the 2 floors in 12min30s. (old record 19min). #vtt #record #recorddumonde #Tikokok #velo ♬ original sound – Aurelien Fontenoy
Photo and video: TikTok @aurelienfontenoy. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
