Eastbourne father and daughter complete John o’Groats to Land’s End bike ride

Graham Freeborn and his daughter Imogen began their 987 mile journey in Scotland, traversing Glen Nevis and Glen Coe before crossing the border into Carlisle and Penrith.

They headed through the rest of England, visiting Lancaster, Stoke-on-Trent and Bristol before eventually making it to their goal in Western Cornwall, 18 days after they set off on their journey.

Graham said: “Our route wasn’t the quickest (the quickest is 874 miles), made harder by us taking the scenic option.

"In total we cycled 987 miles, a few more than planned because of little detours to supermarkets, navigational errors (all mine), and one closed road up a steep hill in Dartmoor, which meant a detour up a steeper hill.

"The routes normally favoured, including the commercial, supported group rides, avoid lots of what we did.

"Yes, our journey was about getting it done, but what an opportunity to see what the UK has to offer as well.”

Graham always wanted to do the journey but was worried about not being able to reach the goal of Land’s End.

He said: “I love cycling, and have always wanted to do it. Time was probably running out, but my body clock had been granted a few bonus years when I recently had both hips replaced.

"Even so, I can’t go on forever. Imogen, 36 years younger than me, had a bit of previous, with long distance rides to Rome, across Spain, Portugal and Vietnam under her belt. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that she was my carer (others would), but she was the perfect companion for the trip.

“For me, while the cycling was great, it was all about getting to Land’s End, and anything else would not have meant anything. I was genuinely worried about failing, for whatever reason – fitness, injury, health, weather, mechanical, anything really.

“My wife sensed my anxiety and tried to reassure me that if it all goes wrong then just treat it as a holiday and get the train home but then I would have failed but in the end we didn’t fail.”

Graham also admitted the weather played its part in their journey.

"We were definitely unlucky for the first and second weeks – Storm Dave snow on the first day, hail storms in Glasgow and wind against us every day.

"We were very, very lucky for the third week – sunshine on our backs and, at last, a favourable wind.

"Overall we broke even, so no room for complaint. We had a weather scoring system to keep us amused - not particularly scientific, but pretty objective.”

Graham was proud to have accomplished the route.

He said: “All my life I have I really wanted to do the End to End. And now I have. As has my daughter Imogen, so she now doesn’t need to spend the next 36 years finding excuses not to.

"Not a Race Across the World I know, but whenever we look at a map of the world, the UK will be easy to find, and we can say with some pride that we cycled from the very top of it to the very bottom.”