Nepali cyclist eyes Everest climb after world tour

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters Life!) - A Nepali cyclist who says he toured 150 countries by bicycle wants to climb Mount Everest next to spread a message of peace.

Pushkar Shah, a native of Dolakha in northeast Nepal, spent 11 years pedaling around 220,000 km (135,000 miles) during which he was kidnapped in Mexico and lost his bicycle in New Zealand.

"Now I want to climb Mount Everest and place the flags of all 150 countries I have collected and that of the U.N. and wish for world peace from the top of the world," the 41-year-old told Reuters on Wednesday.

Shah will cycle his way up to the Everest base camp in the spring climbing season next year and climb the 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) mountain with other Sherpa guides, leaving his bicycle behind.

Shah said he was captured while cycling in Mexico in 2002 when he had to beat up one of his captors and escape.

"If I had not done that I would probably be killed and all my belongings taken away," he said. "That was the most horrific incident during my tour."

Shah, who returned home last week, was honoured by President Ram Baran Yadav on Tuesday who said the cyclist had raised Nepal's "pride" in the world.

During a tour of New Zealand in 2001 Shah lost his bicycle, an incident that provided him with an opportunity to meet Sir Edmund Hillary.