Finished! 825km Cycling, 3 Peaks conquered, 4.5 days.

Spirits were high checking out of our lovely accommodation in Corwen, as we knew that our final day was to be the easiest of the whole challenge. We decided on cramming in the miles on the bike leading up today, so that we would have a short 34 mile stretch to the base of Mount Snowdon, before completing it and allowing around 4 hours to get back to London.

At 8.20am we were on our bikes and speeding towards Pen Y Pass, taking in some of the most impressive scenery of the whole route. Approaching Snowdon the terrain had the feel of the outer Pyrenees, the bright sunshine and blue sky adding to the feel of a South of France in summer.





We completed the 53km in just over 2 hours, aided by the cheering of Mark and Tom's parents who had driven to join us for the final few hours.

The last few hundred metres...



One final push boys!



A quick change at the tourist centre at the base of the Mountain and we were off on the Miner's path up to the summit. The fact that the Gibbs had joined us meant that Tom could indeed join us on the hike, something that we all knew meant a few hours of entertainment no doubt. Surely enough, after 12 minutes of hiking Tom questioned "We must be half way by now right lads?", soon followed by a comical sprint past all 4 of us (did I mention his chosen outfit for the hike was a flat cap and Barbour?) before subsequently sitting on a rock clutching his heart with flushed cheeks around 30 metres further.. On top of this, the sole of Tom's shoe disintegrated, and he got a bad blister on his little toe on the way up.. aside from this he was doing pretty well.



For the 4 of us, the ascent felt like a chore that we just needed to get out of the way to say the challenge was complete, so there were few rests on the 2.5 hour round trip due to our impatience at wanting to get off Snowdon.



The summit





The thought running through all our minds over the last 30 minutes of the descent was of a nice cold beer at the local pub to celebrate... After a few minutes of celebrations and photographs, we jumped in the cars and headed down to The Swallow Falls hotel for a great lunch and a few celebratory drinks. Fred got drunk on 3 pints of shandy, and quickly fell asleep in the Landrover as we headed back on the 4 hour drive to London. The comedy sight of the day was pulling out of the Pub carpark with 6 bikes attached to the LandRover, 3 bags on the roof, and 5 people all squashed in.. the tight journey didn't really help the stiffness in the legs, but Tom did brilliantly to get us back to London bang on 10pm. It will be a strange feeling waking up tomorrow not thinking about water bottles, chamoix cream or route maps... but we'll all be thankful for the rest!

Total Peaks conquered: 3
Total Cycling distance : 825km
Time taken : 4.5 days