International link to Ian Baird's cycle challenge

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A remarkable charity cycle challenge will get under way at Kirkbean later this month – involving riders in Scotland, England – and Kazakhstan.Local cyclist Ian Baird hopes he and his international team can raise thousands of pounds in his 5,000 Miles in Five Days event from May 23-27.The line-up includes 29 local people, plus two from Edinburgh, three from Leeds, one from Whitehaven, one from Debenham in Suffolk and George Budkov – a Russian working in Kazakhstan.Super-fit pedaller Ian told the News: “I met George through the Strava cycling app.

He’s in Almaty, the country’s capital.”Everybody had to commit to five days cycling – and Ian wasn’t sure if he would get one wheel turning.He said: “My target is 1,000 miles a day for five days.“I wanted cyclists who don’t pedal big miles to be able to take part so came up with the idea of group cycling.“We have six groups of five people with each person doing 20 miles a day to reach the 100-mile target.“We also have a group of two doing 50 miles a day each and three solo cyclists – including me – doing 100 miles.“Add that all up and that’s 5,000 miles – if everybody does their bit.”The local cyclists can choose their own routes – which are all on local roads – as long as they complete their target miles.Pedallers in Edinburgh, England and Kazakhstan will do their miles there.Ian said: “Everybody has a 15-hour window to complete their daily miles.“The 20 miles a day folk will have it easier – they can cycle ten miles in the morning and ten in the afternoon if they want.”All money raised in the challenge will be spilt between the Heart of Scotland Appeal and Macmillan Cancer Support.Ian chose the charities after three local women survived major health scares.Ian said: “A local