Another two cyclists dropped out of the Travelex Life Cycle Challenge yesterday due to extreme conditions and the tough challenge facing the Life Cycle team.

One of the cyclists – Stefan Bezzina – had finished last year’s challenge together with Shanel Attard, Graziella Santillo and Nikolai Pace – another three of this year’s group who had to drop out.

The team yesterday left the local school of Fauske in cold and rainy weather that persisted since Sunday’s fourth checkpoint at the Arctic Circle when the temperature dropped down to below 10 degrees Celsius.

Yesterday, the route passed through 20 tunnels, three of them over four kilometres long.

The cyclists were forced to take this route since it was the only one with bicycle lanes. Once again, the support group had to stay very close to the cyclists, alerting oncoming cars by flashing their hazard lights and trying to slow down traffic.

Whenever there was the need to stop, two mobile tents were set up and the back-up team had to provide extra support yesterday as some cyclists were almost at breaking point.

Yesterday’s route again consisted of some very steep hills and undulating terrain. As expected, there were a number of mechanical problems. Maintenance was carried out en route and at the night accommodation in Narvik.

Further information on the Travelex Life Cycle Challenge may be obtained from www.lifecyclechallenge.com. Online donations may be made and visitors may post comments on the guestbook.

Donations may also be made through the Life Cycle accounts at HSBC or BOV, by sending a cheque to the Life Cycle Organisation c/o Renal Unit, or through SMS numbers 50617351 – Lm 1, 50618928 – Lm3 and 50610208 – Lm5.