By Gordon Berry

SUPER-FIT FIFER Mark Beaumont will today complete the fastest ever trip around the around the world by bicycle.

The 25-year-old from Newburgh will arrive back in Paris this afternoon, shattering the world record for biking around the globe by three months.

He will have taken 195 days to cycle 18,000 miles, and has averaged around 100 miles a day for more than six months to bag his place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Mark believes he could have gone faster but was slowed down by having to eat junk food at a time he had to eat 6000 calories a day to maintain his gruelling regime.

“In Australia and America I had to live on junk food sold at truckers stops—there were no healthy options—and it had a massive effect on my mental focus and body strength,” he said.

Mark set off from Paris in August on the Artemis World Cycle Challenge and has ridden his £2500 bike, weighed down by 80 kilos of equipment, through 20 countries.

He endured storms, floods and road rage before being knocked off his bike by an old woman who failed to stop at a red light in Louisiana, USA.

He hopes to have raised £18,000 for several charities, including Country Holidays for Inner City Kids, Edinburgh Cyrenians Trust, Tusk Trust and Community Action Nepal.

Support has also come from the Duke of Edinburgh and mountaineer Doug Scott.