My name is Matt Kosinski. I am 16 years old and a keen cyclist. I am planning a cycling challenge to raise money for the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance.

I am intending to cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats, a total distance of 870 miles. My target is to complete the ride in as close as possible to 100 hours from start to finish. I have been training since the beginning of 2015 and will be completing the challenge at the end of June as soon as I have finished taking my G.C.S.E.'s, I will be accompanied on the ride by my dad and supported by family and friends along the way.

I have seen the Air Ambulance attending incidents on a couple of occasions. When I discovered that it receives no direct funding from the government I wanted to help by setting myself a challenge to raise money to support the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance. If you would like to support the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance by sponsoring me on my challenge please click on the link below.

Thanks for your support.

Matt

We set off at 8am, the weather was sunny and not to windy. The first day was extremely hilly but we got off to a good start and arrived at our first break near Bodmin early. We then travelled south of the A30 to avoid the traffic up to Okehampton, then towards Crediton where it flattened out on the last stretch before reaching our hotel on the M5 service station at Sedgemoor just before 9pm.

178 miles / 287 km

11463' / 3493m hills ascended

Started off a bit earlier at 6am. Unfortunately it was a very wet and windy morning. The route up to Bristol was on deserted back roads but it was pretty hilly. We crossed over the Clifton suspension bridge and then cycled up the west of the M5 towards our first break at just north of Gloucester. We were soaked by now so changed clothes. Luckily the weather improved in the afternoon and we made good progress reaching the hotel in Wigan at 10pm. I suffered my only puncture climbing a steep hill just north of Market Drayton.

203 miles / 327 km

7756' / 2364m hills ascended

We left Wigan at 7am but the slow rush hour traffic through Preston immediately slowed us up. After a brief break in Kendal we climbed Shapp Fell then paralleled the M6/A74 crossing the Scottish border at Gretna Green. We climbed the Southern Uplands to the north of Moffat where we encountered our second serious hill of the day. We paused briefly at the top to take in the scenery. The climb was worth it though as the last part of the day was then predominately downhill until we reached Edinburgh at about 10pm.

197 miles / 317 km

8586' / 2,617m hills ascended

It was a hot day already when we left the hotel in Edinburgh just before 8am. We crossed over the Forth Road bridge and it was a fairly hilly route from there up to Perth where we had our first break. We then continued up to Inverness, we tried to keep off the A9 as much as possible using a cycle path that parallels it for some of the route and some of the more minor roads. Crossing the Grampian mountains was tough as we were fairly worn out by the fourth day and pretty sore but we were rewarded with a nice long downhill in to Inverness where we arrived at 9pm.

162 miles / 261 km

5882' / 1792 m hills ascended

The final day. We were fairly tired by now and it was only a short leg up to John O'Groats but we got off to an early start at 6am as the weather was forecast to get wet and windy by lunchtime. The route up the A9 to Wick has a couple of nasty hills just after Helmsdale and with the wind now up to 25mph and either a head or cross wind it was hard going. By the time we finally reached John O'Groats the wind was up to 45mph but we had made it. We struggled to hold the Dorset Air Ambulance banner in the wind!

122 miles / 197 km

5623' / 1714m hills ascended

Thanks very much to everyone who sponsored me to do the ride, we managed to raise almost £1300 for the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance. A big thank you also to my mum and sister for supporting us all the way.

We rode a total of 862 miles in 56 hours of pedalling with an average speed of 15.4mph and in total ascended 39,310 feet of hills!

I ended up taking 104 hours or 4 days and 8 hours to complete the ride from the time I set off to the time I arrived in John O'Groats. Just a few hours short of my target!