Cyclist's 'relief' after breaking coastline record

A cyclist says she feels a "sense of relief" after becoming the fastest person to circumnavigate Britain's coastline by bicycle.

Molly Weaver, from Ludlow, Shropshire, rode more than 7,700km (4,784 miles) in 21 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes, completing her journey in London on Sunday.

The former professional cyclist cut 17 hours off the time set by Nick Sanders in 1984 and in doing so became the first woman to hold the record.

Ms Weaver told BBC Radio Shropshire she felt "disoriented" after the challenge and did not know what to do with herself "without a stopwatch on everything".

"It still feels like it hasn't really happened yet but I'm sure it will sink in at some point. It's more a sense of relief," she said.

"I still haven't got the overwhelming joy of it, I've just got this sense of a massive weight off my shoulders."

The challenge, which began on 15 June, saw Ms Weaver cycle clockwise around the English, Welsh and Scottish coastlines.

She said she was sat on her bike for an average of about 18 hours a day, with her daily stints adding up to about 360 to 370km.

Her biggest challenges included the days of bad weather, particularly rain and strong headwinds, although she only had one "embarrassing topple" from her bike during the whole journey.

Ms Weaver has also raised more than £10,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and said the response had been "hard to comprehend", especially from those who turned out to support her.

"People you don't even know being at the roadside cheering me on, sending me so many messages, being at the finish – it's been almost hard to process," she added.

Ms Weaver said she was now looking forward to not being on her bike for a while but would likely get "sucked into another challenge" in the future.

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