PARIS: Cyclist and social media sensation Aurelien Fontenoy has etched his name into the record books by becoming the fastest athlete to climb to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower on an all-terrain bike.
Fontenoy tackled 686 steps of the Paris landmark on Thursday, reaching the second-floor platform in just 12 minutes and 30 seconds — almost seven minutes faster than the previous record, the monument’s operator confirmed on Friday.
Under the rules, the French rider was not allowed to let his feet touch the ground during the attempt. “I did not expect to take this little time,” Fontenoy said afterwards. “The Eiffel Tower is really a symbol, it is really the monument that I wanted to climb.”
The feat is part of his project The Climb, which has already seen him scale Paris’s 140-metre Trinity Tower in 2021 and Estonia’s Tallinn TV Tower earlier this year.
With this achievement, Fontenoy has combined athleticism and showmanship, once again proving why he is regarded as one of the most daring figures in the cycling world.
