Europe's toughest sportive just got tougher. Switzerland's Tour des Stations is back for 2021, with an even tougher route for the Ultrafondo. So tough in fact, that it climbs the same elevation as Mount Everest, in a 242km course.
Have we discovered the world's toughest 100km cycling route? With 4480m of elevation, this could well be the toughest 100km ride anywhere in the world.
One Man. One Climb. One Goal. The climb of Lysebotn in Norway is one of Europe's most beautiful, climbs, it's also one of Europe's best kept secrets. This is a story about one man's mission to take the Strava KOM
This September, complete the Band of Climbers September Summits Challenge, and unlock a £40* discount code to spend on Band of Climbers apparel or gifts. Complete any ride with over 2000m of climbing, and the code is yours.
How did Band of Climbers Amabssador, and UK National Hill Climb Champion Ed Laverack perform against the 240km - 8250m Tour des Stations - Ultra Fondo? Watch the video to find out.
Packing over 3000m (over 10,000ft) of elevation into just 100km of riding can be relatively common in the Alps or Dolomites. That can be achieved with 2 or 3 long climbs. But in the UK, it's almost unheard of. That is unless you live in Sheffield, and your name is Mark.
Back in May, during a dark and depressing Lockdown across most of the world, Band of Climbers launched our 100km challenge. A route planning/riding challenge that asked you to plot a route or ride with a maximum distance of 100km. The challenge was to pack in as much elevation into the route as you could, without the route overlapping itself, crossing over, repeating the same roads, or doubling back on itself.
If you're like us and have spent countless hours on Zoom over the past few weeks or months, we thought you might like some fresh backgrounds to raise your zoom game to new heights. We've made a series of our favourite images available to download for free as zoom backgrounds.
Whilst we've been sitting at home during lockdown, we got thinking, what is the most amount of elevation we can pack into a 100km ride, from our front door, without using the same road twice? We looked at our favourite routes on Strava and made a list of our favourite climbs, and got to work.
For many of us, indoor riding is our only option right now, however, that shouldn't stop us from training or improving our fitness and ability to get faster, and climb harder. So who better to help us than the UK National Hill Climb Champion and Band of Climbers Ambassador Ed Laverack. Here, Ed gives us his favourite 3 indoor riding sessions to climb faster.
Introducing the 2020 Men's Spring Summer range of Performance Apparel from Band of Climbers. Immediately after launching our 2019 range, we headed to the French Alps to begin designing and testing our 2020. Over the past 11 months we've refined our range over the highest Cols of Europe and the steepest climbs in the UK.
When he's not ensuring the smooth operation of our warehouse and customer service, John Bowman, Operations Manager at Band of Climbers can be found doing one of two things, riding his bike, or cooking up some tasty treats to fuel his rides. A chef in a previous life, John has put together some of his favourite easy breakfast ideas for anyone looking to fuel their climbs ahead.
