Congratulations to Mark Fallon, HR Manager, who completed the Lon Las Cymru challenge on Friday 18th May!
Lon Las Cymru is a challenge to cycle the length of Wales from Cardiff to Holyhead, taking National Cycle Route number 8. It has a total of 257 miles with 18,000 feet of ascent. Phew!
A friend of Mark's, who had wanted to complete the challenge for some time, convinced Mark and another friend to take part and the trio achieve the challenge in one weekend - with just one month to train.
Mark filled in SG World's roving sports reporter on all the action from the challenge, "We set off at lunchtime on Friday, took the train to Cardiff and were on our bikes starting the journey by 4:30pm. We did 70 miles to the Brecon Beacons and cycled until about midnight. We managed to find a field to camp in that (we hoped) had no cows or sheep or other farming life and got into our bivvy bags."
"We were up again at 5am, freezing with frost on the ground, and cycled 153 miles on the Saturday heading to Anglesey. Just before the Menai Bridge, we got pulled over by a very disgruntled policeman for going back up a slip road the wrong way - but we had very little choice! However, we managed to cross the bridge, found another field and spent the night amongst the grass (definitely no animals this time).
"We were up again at 5am to finish the final 35 miles of the trip and were on the train by 8.30am back to Crewe. We collapsed in a hot tub when we got back and didn't want to get out!"
Well done Mark and friends - it sounds like you deserved that dip in the hot tub after your action-packed challenge!