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After three years in the making, Cycling UK and Natural Resources Wales launched Traws Eryri this summer, a new 200-kilometer bikepacking route that crosses Eryri National Park in North Wales. Among the first to ride it, Katherine Moore gives her verdict on the Welsh rough stuff.
I’m a sucker for movies like Love Actually and novels like Let the Great World Spin that seek to capture how, taken as a whole, the paths of individual lives become interwoven to create a meaningful story. During my time riding in Slovenia at a recent Komoot Women’s Rally and hearing snippets of different rider’s journeys to the start, it felt like I was living in one of these tapestry-like narratives in real time. The thing is though, we’re all doing this all the time but we just can’t always see it. Having the common thread of the bicycle and a shared destination to ride brought our collective overlap into sharp focus but this is a story that runs off the page in both directions—each woman in attendance has a rich history that predates these words and one that will surely continue long after. But, I felt grateful to experience a shared, if brief, chapter during our time in the saddle in Slovenia.
Forty-five riders, 280 kilometers with 900 meters of climbing, and two countries. Sleeping out in two (nearly) wild campgrounds, stops at two awesome cycling cafes and one well-timed heat wave. All the fruit pies, ice-cream, coffee, shared snacks and supermarket sweeps. Brightly-colored kits, wild swims, hardpack, ankle-deep sand, cobbled streets and everything in between. This is the story of the Lowlands Rally, a bikepacking weekender hosted by the European clothing brand, IRIS, in collaboration with komoot, and documented by renowned photographer, Ashley Gruber. If you couldn’t tell already, it was a weekend we won’t soon forget!
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Katja says, in Slovenia when a family has salad for dinner, they all eat from the same bowl. The bigger the family, the bigger the bowl. One person gathers vegetables from the garden– green leaves, fresh beans, tomatoes and cucumbers, onions and herbs. One person chops them up. One person dresses the salad with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. One person tastes it to make sure it’s just right. They place the bowl in the middle of the table and everyone digs in with their own fork. There’s the usual family back and forth– who’s eating too fast, who’s picking out only the best parts, who’s pushing down too hard with their fork. When the vegetables are all gone, someone picks up the bowl and drinks the juice.
When I think of our route-building project in Slovenia for the upcoming 2023 Komoot Women’s Rally there, and all of the people that played a role, this story sticks with me.
Jutting out into the Pacific Ocean south of California, west of Mexico, the Baja Peninsula encompasses four deserts, roughly 3,000 kilometers of coastline, and the right mix of challenge and remoteness to attract intrepid travelers of all kinds. For those of the bikepacking variety, a relatively new route has quickly become a must-ride: the 2,692-kilometer Baja Divide. Those with schedules to keep may take on the Divide in sections, riding for a week or two before hopping on a bus back to where they started. And then there’s Sònia Colomo.
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
“I think the big highlight for me was just the energy—the energy shared any time I passed someone, or they passed me—I’d stop and think I was alone, and all of a sudden, I’d turn a corner and see someone I knew. The energy we left echoed through those mountains.”
This past April, in the quiet Spanish town of Teruel, a few hours east of Madrid, 56 riders set out by bike to take on the Komoot Women’s Montañas Vacías Bikepacking Challenge, an eight-day exploration of one of the least-populated regions in Europe. The 57th rider, Josie Fouts, followed along in the media van and recaps the challenge below.
Note: This article is part of a sponsored partnership with Komoot. We’ll always disclose when content is sponsored to ensure our journalistic integrity.
Katherine Moore, a zoologist by training and a cycling writer by trade, has just launched a new bikepacking route through her home turf in East Devon. Besides the gorgeous coastal tracks and sleepy wooded trails further inland, quaint thatched villages, and colorful seaside towns, the East Devon Trail features a twist: linking up nature reserves and bird hides along its 115-mile length. While the release of this accessible weekender trail has been the cause of much excitement, its development sprung out of a much darker and unexpected place.
Note: This article is part of a sponsored partnership with Komoot. We’ll always disclose when content is sponsored to ensure our journalistic integrity.
International bikepacking duo Tristen Bogaard and Belén Castelló have a special talent for looking at destinations through the lens of bikepackers. On their exploration of the Balearic Islands they sniffed out hidden gems and immersed themselves in the local culture, history, and landscape of the islands to ‘bikepackify’ them for future explorers.
When you think of volcanic landscapes, is your mind is drawn to the barren, rocky, and dark moonscapes of Iceland, Hawaii or Lanzarote? Well, in the volcanic regions of Central France, a different kind of geology awaits.
Enduro World Series racer turned YouTuber Scotty Laughland has traveled the world mountain biking, from British Columbia to Jamaica, but world events in recent years kept him closer to home than anticipated.
Born out of a fresh perspective on his local trails after the birth of his first child, Scotty set about sharing the gems he’s enjoyed over the years – as well as some thoughts on sustainable mountain biking development, the role of trail associations and how we can support these valuable networks.
Komoot is a route planning and navigation app that enables you to find, plan, enjoy and share your experiences in the great outdoors. Its promise to the world: to make exploration and adventure accessible to everyone. Today we’re going to give the readers of The Radavist an official introduction…
Spain’s Galician coast is extensive, beautiful, wild, abundant and it is feared for its mightiness since ancient times. The Atlantic Ocean beats the Galician cliffs and rocks with a fascinating strength. Fishermen and their families are in close contact with this Ocean’s powerful force. The potent waves often attempt to drag nightmares into these shores, but the coastline is dotted with lights of hope. One lighthouse after another sends signals to sailors and fishermen alike, these are the large torches that illuminate the way back to terra firma.
Need an excuse to emerge from your wintertime chrysalis? Check out Albion Cycling and komoot‘s 12HoursOfMay campaign. You can win prizes and more all from doing what you’d be doing normally this time of year: riding your bike! Check out all the details below…