Adventure Cyclist Mark Beaumont Back In Scotland After 'Africa Solo' Record
Mark Beaumont's home after smashing the Cairo to Cape Town solo cycling world record.
Renowned adventurer Mark Beaumont last month smashed the Cairo to Cape Town solo cycling world record, completing the trip in just 42 days and beating the previous best time by more than two weeks.
He is now back in Scotland and caught up with our reporter Shiona McCallum, you can hear the interview here:
Mark’s incredible feat saw him take an astonishing 17 days off the existing world record of 59 days and eight hours for the 6,750 mile ‘Africa Solo’ challenge, beating the time set by the South African rider, Keegan Longueira, earlier this year.
The record-breaking time saw Mark dramatically beat even his own personal target of 50 days, and was made all the more remarkable given that he was forced to overcome problems with his bike, as well as fight off an attempted mugging, during his epic trek along the iconic African route.
After leaving Cairo on April 10th, Mark maintained an average mileage of 150 miles per day through challenging conditions and terrain, journeying through countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana before reaching South Africa.
‘Africa Solo’ represented Mark’s latest endurance cycling challenge, having previously completed an 18,000 mile round-the-world bike race in 2008, which saw him smash the previous world record for that trip by a staggering 82 days. He also set a record for cycling the Americas for a BBC documentary in 2010, and last year followed the Queen’s Baton Relay around 70 Commonwealth nations and territories in the build up to the Games in Glasgow.