Climbs

On Saturday 12th June we hosted the 2nd event in our Toughest Group Ride Tour, this time in the stunning Yorkshire Dales. YouTuber and lover of hills, Katie Kookaburra planned an incredible route, and rode with us over a testing course. Watch Katie's video, and learn more about Band of Climbers and our group rides this summer.

What was it like to ride the first of the Band of Climbers Toughest Group Rides? We asked our man on the inside, cyclist, model, writer, musician and fell runner Joe 'Stinger' Stringer to give us his unique take on a day of big climbs on steep gradients.  

Join Band of Climbers this summer for one of the toughest group rides you'll ever ride. Why are they tough? Because every ride will pack in a MINIMUM of 2200m of elevation (7217ft), with as many steep climb as we can find.

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.

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.

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.

The UK may not have countless twenty or thirty kilometer-long climbs like our French, Italian or Spanish neighbours. But it does have many short, super tough climbs with gradients far steeper than anything you'll find in the Alps, Pyrenees or across most parts of Europe. 

To celebrate the launch of the new Band of Climbers ThermoAscent Jerseys, we took the day off with friends to ride some of the most scenic, and some of the steeper climbs in North Yorkshire. With a max temperature of 4c, we put the new ThermoAscent jerseys to work...

In September 2019 we headed to Susa in the Italian Alps. We had 3 days to to ride the best climbs in the area, the Colle delle Nivolet, Sestriere, Col d'Izoard, Col d'Agnel, and the big one, the Colle del Nivolet

The Grand Tours have popularized Europe's highest roads, making them the bucket list of many riders, but there is another iconic climb that is quickly topping riders bucket lists – the Taiwan KOM Challenge. A race which invites amateurs and World Tour riders to the start line.

In mid-May we optimistically packed our bags and headed to the French Alps to recon the routes ahead of our first Climbers Escape Cycling Holiday later that month.