At five minutes past eight on Sunday morning Janet Andrews-McKay of the Stewartry Wheelers team rode back into the trailhead at Glentress Forest, Peebles, to complete the inaugural running of the 7/24 Challenge Ride in a blistering 21 hours five minutes.

The challenge ride, two hundred and eighty miles including ninety miles off road and incorporating red or black grade routes at all of the 7Stanes centres, is ridden as a relay by teams of four cyclists. This year's event was a trial run and entry was deliberately limited. Many people seriously doubted that the course could be completed in 24 hours.

Simon Brooke of the Stewartry Wheelers team said "I'm very pleased with our achievement; we've set a real time to beat for years to come. It was very much a team effort. I carried the baton down the Old Edinburgh Road from Clatteringshaws to the top of the Kirroughtrie Black Route, for the whole of the Mabie Red Route and for the on-road Newcastleton to Glentress stage, a total of eighty-five miles. Angus Laurie, aged eleven, rode a blinder down the Kirroughtrie Black Route and the whole of the Dalbeattie Red Route. Janet did a scorching fifty minutes round the Newcastleton Red Route - which she'd never ridden before - in total darkness, starting at 1:50 am, and then finished up for us by riding Glentress in one hour thirty. But the man of the match was Andrew Crooks, who carried the baton from the start at Glentrool for a total of 150 miles including all the road stages except the last one." Stewartry Wheelers is a cycling club based in the Stewartry which aims to provide events for cyclists of all interests and abilities.

The Robertson Gemini team of Gareth Montgomerie, Stewart Robertson, Alastair McLellan and Jon Senior finished second in 23 hours 50 minutes, also breaking the 24 hour cut-off, despite stopping to sleep after completing the Newcastleton stage. Stewart Robertson said afterwards "we all had a great time. We'll definitely be taking part next year".