A YOUNG woman from Bradford on Avon and her boyfriend have completed a coast-to-coast cycle marathon in the United States and are now working in New Zealand to raise funds for their next adventure.

Rebecca Myles, 26, and her partner Rupert Munro-Faure, 26, from London, covered around 4,500 miles following the Transamerica cycle route from Astoria in Oregon to Yorktown in Virginia.

Miss Myles, of Southway Park, Bradford on Avon, said: “I left for Portland, Oregon, at the end of July this year with my boyfriend Rupert.

“We had spent the past year planning to cycle coast-to-coast across the USA, following the Transamerica cycle route.

“The cycle route was supposed to take us three months, but we finished it in 2.5 months, cycling an average of 65 miles a day.

“We finished in New York City at the end of October, cycling a total of 4,500 miles.

“A lot of days we would push on, making it to around 100 miles some days.”

“Life on the open road was very minimalistic - we camped for most of the time and cooked every night on our miniature MSR gas stove.

“When we weren’t camping a lot of churches would open their doors for us and allow us to camp out on their floor! This among many other things restored our faith in humanity along the trip.

“We climbed steep mountains, cycled across high desert in the blistering heat and would sometimes go for miles with minimal food and water.

“The luscious and ever changing glorious scenery definitely made the hard times worth it.

“Conquering the highest mountain on the cycle route in Colorado (Hoosier Pass, 11,500 feet) left me feeling ecstatic.

“We also got close to nature - we saw a grizzly bear, had a brown Cinammon bear run out onto the road in front of us, and stumbled upon a bison on a bike path in Yellowstone National Park.”

The pair are now preparing to go back to America in May to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.