The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Beaumont given hero’s welcome in Scotland.
Pipes and cheers greet cyclist and family at airport
The fastest man to cycle around the globe has returned home to a hero’s welcome following his record-breaking feat.
Ultra-endurance cyclist Mark Beaumont, from Perthshire, touched down with his family at Edinburgh Airport yesterday, two days after shattering the record for circumnavigating the globe on a bike.
The 34-year-old adventurer set off from France in the summer on a mission to go “around the world in 80 days” and arrived back in Paris on Monday on the 79th day of the journey.
Not only did he beat his own target for the Artemis World Cycle challenge but he sliced a third – 44 days – off the previous record for the round-the-world trip.
Mr Beaumont arrived at the airport to the sound of a piper and cheers from a waiting crowd.
He told the Press Association: “It’s just wonderful to arrive back in Edinburgh, get back to Scotland. And what a welcome, I didn’t expect that.
“A lot of people have shown their support online and there was a great turnout in Paris but two days later to turn up in Edinburgh and have such a homecoming is wonderful.”
Mr Beaumont predicted it would take him a few more days before the scale of what he and his team had achieved actually sunk in.
“Since July 2 I was riding 240 miles a day, 16 hours a day, the alarm went off at 3.30am every morning,” he said.
“It was an absolutely brutal schedule. Mentally and physically it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
“It’s going to take me a couple of months physically to train down and readjust.
“But I think the scale of the challenge with the team behind me, everything we’ve pulled off not just in the last 78-and-a-bit days but the last two years of build-up, I don’t think it’s fully sunk in.
“I guess I’m still stuck on the bike a bit.”
Mr Beaumont arrived back in the UK with his wife and two young daughters.
He set off in July from under the Arc de Triomphe, inspired by Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel Around The World In Eighty Days.
The Scot travelled through 16 countries during his four-stage challenge.
During the trip, Mr Beaumont was also awarded the Guinness World Records title for the most miles cycled in a month, from Paris to Perth, Australia, verified at 7,031 miles (11,315km).
To donate £10 to Orkidstudio, the charity supported by Mr Beaumont via the expedition, text “ORKD80 £10” to 70070 or visit www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/markbeaumont-80days
It’s just wonderful to arrive back in Edinburgh, get back to Scotland. And what a welcome, I didn’t expect that