OFFICIAL: Cycling Scotland’s North Coast 500 in 3 days!
TriNation podcast co-host Luke Howard completes his North Coast 500 in 3 days!
Luke completed Scotland’s North Coast 516-mile cycle challenge, which began and ended at Inverness Castle in just 3 days, to raise funds to support Scottish registered charity the Abbie’s Sparkle Foundation – a gift and grant giving service set up to provide help and support for children with cancer.
With each day’s cycling averaging 269km, the challenge started on August 5th heading West to the Applecross Peninsula and the infamous Bealach Na Ba (Pass of the Cattle) the ‘The Holy Grail’, of cycling. The “toughest and wildest climb” in Britain. 9km long with a climb of 650m at 20% gradient. This was just one of the many ascents on the route that would total over 35,000ft – more than the height of Mount Everest.
Luke said “Scotland’s west coast is anything but steady terrain; and there were dark moments when my average speed was falling as quickly as my sense of humour not to mention being tortured by swarming midges, but somehow, I always managed to get back into the zone, with high spirits,”.
Day two and another 11.5-hours in the saddle, the sun was out and the Highlands became a place of outstanding natural beauty, a place to capture the imagination and fill you with wonder. The last day Luke was preparing for an easy ride back to Inverness, or at least that’s was what he was led to believe. It was actually 274km and 2,568m of ascents coupled with an 11-hour ride. Finishing up on the A9 was not for the faint-hearted with cars driving crazy-close and fast. The final hurdle to Inverness Castle was in sight with the roads much like a scene from Mad Max.
At 8.00 pm on 7th August Luke arrived back at Inverness Castle – the challenge had been completed in just 3 days. Luke documented the whole journey on his social media so his sponsors could see his day to day progress.
Luke said: “I would thank everyone for their support and donations which made this challenge so worthwhile for such a worthy cause.” Even though the initial fundraising target was exceeded.donations to Luke’s fundraiser can still be made by visiting: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LukeHoward13
