A group of young cyclists from Nantwich have completed an epic 3,184km fundraising ride from England to Asia in just 26 days.
The saddle-sore friends crossed the finish line at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and helped raise more than £5,700.
James Redwood, Will Rowlands, Kieron Lawton and Ewan Davies set off from Buckingham Palace alongside their support van driver, Jude Metz to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and Alzheimer’s society.
They suffered plenty of setbacks along the way, including having their support van towed away, and the support driver being denied entry to the Turkish border.
With 160km left until the finish line on the final day they endured 30-degree heat and 30mph headwinds, with 1800m elevation.
They had to cycle into the night around mountainous, windy country roads, large potholes, wild rabid dogs but managed to battle through to the end.
At one point they were stranded without food, kit or camping gear for four days.
Kieron said: “It’s been tough, we’ve faced some challenges but also adventure, which is the fun of it all at the end of the day.”
After riding from London to Dover, Dunkirk, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, they battled their way through Hungary and towards Turkey through Serbia and Bulgaria.
It would normally take a rider around three months to cycle from London to Asia.
The four friends finished in around three and a half weeks.
The group, who called themselves “Tier One” down to their ‘get it done’ attitude, pedalled through rain, wind and elevation averaging over 130km a day, with no current rest days.
The lads say they took inspiration from endurance athlete Russ Cook, known as the “Hardest Geezer”, who ran from Istanbul to London in 2021 before completing his record-breaking run across Africa last year.
“When you’re on a bike, you can go so much faster, and it’s less demanding than walking, so we decided to push it further,” James added.
“Each day we wanted to prove that.”
But the challenge was also personal, raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support and Alzheimer’s Society, the charities the boys have chosen hold deep personal significance to them.
James lost his mum to cancer when he was just 10, while Kieron’s father passed away from cancer in 2023, and Ewan’s grandfather passed away with Alzheimer’s in 2022.
Well done lads and all that but surely the 4 of them would have raised more money for charity doing minimum wage jobs for 26 days .