When 86-year-old Gerard McCarten finished his latest challenge – cycling the equivalent height of the tallest mountain in the solar system – he went to lift his bike above his head. His legs trembled with exhaustion. His body, worn down by 40 days of riding, cried for him to stop, and he toppled over forwards.
Undeterred, he tried again to lift the bike. He raised it up to his shoulders – “that was as high as I could get it” – and smiling through the triangle of the frame, declared his challenge finished.
It was a small test, really, compared to the one he had just undergone. Throughout October and November last year, McCarten climbed 23,000m – the elevation of Olympus Mons, an extinct volcano on Mars – in honour of his wife, Margaret, who died of a lung condition in 2023, and his daughter, Lesley, who he lost to breast cancer last summer.
He chose to replicate the height of the volcano by riding up and down his street in Whitehaven, Cumbria. “From the bottom of the cul-de-sac, I go up to the third lamppost, and around the corner,” he explained. It’s a 70m-long ramp that rises a little under 6m. Coincidentally, the 8% gradient is the same as Olympus Mons.
“Most people seem to want to climb [the 8,848m equivalent of] Mount Everest,” he told Cycling Weekly. “Well, I did that last year, so I went out of this world, and found Olympus Mons on Mars, which is 13 miles high.
“The idea was I would do two sessions a day and cycle for two hours each session. But then I found after a week that I couldn’t manage, that I was getting tired, so I broke it down into four sessions of one hour a day, with a break in between each hour. And so I kept going like that.”
For 40 days, McCarten plugged away at the climb, driven by memories of his wife and daughter. When Storm Amy hit, he swapped his road bike for his grandson’s mountain bike, and ploughed into a freezing headwind. It gave him such a chill, he remembers, he had to take two days off.
He also took some rest after a tumble he had one day when stopping to answer his phone. “The handlebars twisted, the front wheel twisted round, and as I hit the road and fell forward, I hit my face into the handlebars. I was a bit knocked out,” he chuckled. “A couple of days later, I was back on the bike.”
As the 86-year-old’s challenge neared its end, he was invited to the local primary school to ride a few laps of the playground. He went dressed in silver wellies and a time trial helmet, and strapped a tinfoil ‘jetpack’ to his back. “I was just like an astronaut,” he said. “All the children were out in their space outfits and cheering.”
Born in 1939, McCarten began racing bikes as a teenager in the 1950s. He competed in events in Asia while working for the Air Force, took part in road races and time trials in the UK, and later organised the Cleator Moor Continental Road Cycle Race for three decades.
With his Olympus Mons challenge, he set out to raise money for two charities that, for him and his family, have been “a great help during some difficult times”: West Cumbria Society for the Blind and Hospice at Home West Cumbria.
“In 2020, my wife came home from hospital for end-of-life care,” he said. “That year, before she died, I decided I wanted to do a challenge. I did [the equivalent cycling height of] the four highest peaks in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and then the following year, I climbed [the equivalent of] the highest mountain in the world, which is Mauna Kea, which is half buried under the sea, and is taller in height than Mount Everest at 10,000m.”
Each one of McCarten’s challenges have taken place on his 70m residential street. There’s a simple reason why: when he was caring for his wife, he didn’t want to stray far from her at home.
“Margaret would have a sleep at lunchtime, and I knew if I didn’t look after myself, I wouldn’t be any good for her in the long term,” he said. “I took my phone with me so I was always in contact with the phone in the house, and I used to ride up and down the hill as exercise. If the phone rang, it was only 30 seconds to get back in the house.”
McCarten raised £1,400 thanks to his Olympus Mons challenge. He has already given a £700 cheque to the West Cumbria Society for the Blind, and will go this week to donate an equal one to Hospice at Home West Cumbria.
With no higher mountain left to climb, the 86-year-old has enjoyed some time away from his bike since completing his 23,000m last November – “I’ve been going out for walks in the local nature reserve,” he said.
Does he have any more cycling challenges in mind for the future? “I’ll be 87 in February, and I need to get a lot of things sorted out this year, get everything in order,” he said. “I’m just going to take things easy.”
McCarten has now closed his JustGiving page. Donations can still be made directly to the West Cumbria Society for the Blind and Hospice at Home West Cumbria.
