I wanted to avoid the classic route

Eighty-two-year-old Gina Harris made a remarkable journey, cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Bill Gibb finds out more.

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HAVING taken up cycling in middle age, you might expect Gina Harris to let her interest wane again in later life.

Instead, at the age of eighty-two, she went to the other extreme and set off on an incredible adventure by attempting to become the oldest woman to cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

More than 900 miles and over three weeks after first getting in the saddle, Gina clambered off her bike, thrilled to have successfully completed her challenge.

Along the way she savoured some of Britain’s most stunning scenery, while also raising both money and awareness for Refuge and Women’s Aid.

“When was fifty and knew my children would be leaving home, started wondering what to do as an interest,” Gina says.

“A friend suggested cycling. When got out on this really old bike, loved the freedom of being able to go much further than could just walking.

“I live in Birmingham, and I could be in the countryside in just forty minutes.”