A Guinness World Record holder yesterday cycled up 3,139 steps in the Taipei 101 tower, formerly the tallest building on the planet, in an astonishing feat of endurance.
Polish cyclist Krystian Herba pedaled up the Taiwan landmark in 2 hours and 13 minutes, aiming to smash his own record for scaling the most number of steps on a bike.
Herba, 33, bettered the 2,919 stairs he climbed in Melbourne in February last year, but is awaiting final confirmation of the record from the Guinness World Records authorities.
“This was absolutely the most difficult challenge ever in my life, but definitely this is my biggest success,” he told reporters afterwards.
“The first 50 floors I did not feel strong enough, I felt stressed a little bit. But after that, I felt stronger,” added Herba, who has climbed some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers.
The high school PE teacher said he had prepared for the challenge for more than six months by riding his bike repeatedly up a 17-story building in Rzeszow city in southeastern Poland.
Taipei 101 stands at more than 500m high and was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010, when it was overtaken by Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
Herba climbed 60 floors, then went down in an elevator to the ground floor before pedaling up to the 91st to reach his target of 3,100 steps — something he said was permitted under Guinness regulations.
The Pole has successfully completed nine similar challenges — including climbing some of the tallest buildings in Dubai, Shanghai and Melbourne — according to a Polish representative in Taiwan.
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