Beaumont lands at Edinburgh

Scottish cycling hero Mark Beaumont has landed back on home soil after completing his marathon cycle between Cairo and Cape Town in record-breaking time.

An exhausted Mark arrived back into Edinburgh Airport this afternoon with his family who had flown out to see him complete his Africa Solo charity cycle.

Perthshire native Mark cycled over the finish line of his 10,000km journey in a record-breaking 41 days, 10 hours and 22 seconds, beating the previous record of 59 days set earlier this year.

Mark spent 439 hours on the saddle and maintained an average of 160 miles a day travelling through countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana before reaching South Africa.

The cycle has raised over £30,000 for Orkidstudio, a humanitarian architecture and construction charity he is Patron for.

Welcoming Mark back into the Scottish capital, John Watson, Chief Commercial Officer at Edinburgh Airport, said: “We’ve been following Mark’s journey with baited breath and are proud and delighted to welcome him back to Scotland after completing his epic journey.

“As Scotland’s busiest airport, we play an active role in our community through various partnership and charity initiatives. Our Community Board supports applications based around our criteria of sport, education, environment, community and health and wellbeing.

“Mark is a great Scottish sportsman and charity fundraiser and we are proud to be able to sponsor and support him on this fantastic achievement.”