Memorial ride pals from Shropshire clear the Rockies
Four friends will be happy to leave the mountains behind after a punishing 1,400 miles scaling peaks as high as 8,000ft as they cross the USA.
Shropshire lads Kyle Williams, Richard Clarke, George Jacks and Mike Baker are now about a third of the way through their 4,000 mile journey in memory of their friend Joel Lawrence, who died of cancer aged just 19.
Organised with the help of Ludlow Rotary Club, 23-year-old website designer Kyle is cycling the whole distance, with support and encouragement from his three friends.
Currently somewhere west of Pueblo, Colorado, the Ludlow boys have been on the road for about three weeks having set off from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on April 21.
They have since tackled the Carson Range of the Sierra Nevada mountains, followed by the wide open spaces of the Nevada desert which Kyle said was mostly cold this time of year.
On his blog, he wrote: "I would love to talk about the things I've seen out on the bike today but there literally is nothing. The roads are visible right until the horizon and the only thing surrounding them are mountains and dry shrubs.
"I was loving the long and straight roads initially – but the novelty soon wore off after a couple of hours with no turn in the road."
The intrepid foursome then pressed on through dramatic landscape of a different kind, scaling barren canyons in Utah and yet more mountains with the greener, but snowier, Rockies in Colorado, where they also came across the familiar sounding town of Bishop's Castle, sign-posted just 12 miles from their route – it's Shropshire namesake the home town of Richard, who is now a firefighter in Ludlow.
If the desert and mountains were chilly however, the hospitality was warm as members of American Rotary clubs have welcomed the boys wherever they have stopped with food, friendship and personal stories of their own similar to that of Ludlow teenager Joel, who died in 2010.
The team have also been attending fundraising events and giving talks to schools – as well as appearing in the media.
On Tuesday they visited Dorcy Cancer Center in Pueblo, which Kyle said was inspiring but tough.
"Our tour was thoroughly interesting and we had the pleasure of meeting some brilliant people who we shared Joel's story with.
"It was great to experience the Dorcy Cancer Center but at the same time I didn't feel 100 per cent comfortable.
"At one point I wanted to go outside but I forced myself not to be ignorant. After all this is the reason I am cycling across America."
Fighting altitude sickness and exhaustion, he said he was glad to be heading down hill to the much flatter side of Colorado and onto the plains of Kansas.
By the time the four arrive in New York they will have travelled through 15 states. Joel had always wanted to travel across the USA, so the friends are taking on the challenge in his memory.
The ride is in aid of Joel's Wish, a charity set up to provide support to cancer sufferers between 19 and 30.
