A CYCLIST is celebrating after peddling the equivalent of Everest in just one day for charity.
Ryan Crawley undertook the ‘Everesting Challenge’ on Sunday and chose to cycle up and down Holme Moss, near Holmfirth, as many times as it took to reach the height of the world’s highest peak.
After 34 trips up to the top of the hill - which featured on the Tour de France route in 2014 - the 27-year-old reached the 8,849 metres necessary to have scaled the mountain - without leaving Yorkshire.
He was cycling from 6am to 8pm and raised a total of £1,100 for the charity.
“I used to be a runner but I got injured last year and I was forced to give it up,” said Ryan, of Greenfoot Lane, Gawber.
“I picked up a second-hand bike and from there I was hooked.
“I decided to take on the challenge of cycling up Everest and spent around six months training to be able to complete the challenge.”
Ryan raised money for charity Greenfingers, which provides gardens for terminally ill children.
“The original plan was to complete the challenge in May but the weather was that horrible I had to push it back,” he said. “Eventually we settled on doing it in June but even so it was still really windy.
“The wind worked against me because I had to fight against the it when I was going up hill so it made the uphill stretches even longer.
“There were times when I felt like I wanted to give up but my friends really encouraged me to keep going - without them I would have thrown the towel in.”
