Bond Almand ’26 is an ultra-distance cyclist known for his record-breaking bike rides. From his Pan-American crossing in the fall of 2024, which he completed nine days faster than the previous record, to his most recent U.S. Eastern Seaboard crossing from Miami to Madawaska, Maine in just over eight days last September, Almand has captured the imagination of the Dartmouth community and the nation. He now boasts over 120,000 followers on Instagram, where he documents the highs and lows of his journeys.
On July 7, less than a month after graduating from Dartmouth, Almand will embark on his next adventure: biking to all 30 NFL stadiums around the country and delivering the gameball to the opening game of the NFL season in Seattle on September 9. Almand sat down with The Dartmouth to discuss his plans for the ride, his ultra-distance cycling career and the future of the growing sport.
You just graduated from Dartmouth. Congratulations. Have you had a chance to reflect on your Dartmouth experience and what it has meant to you?
BA: I’m very, very grateful for the four years of Dartmouth. I’ll miss it a lot, but I’m also really ready to move on to the next phase of my life. I think Dartmouth gave me the environment that I needed to grow both academically and athletically, and as a person. I feel like a vastly different person than when I first arrived in Hanover. I’m also leaving with some mixed feelings about the school: I was kind of disappointed in the administration at times and felt that artificial intelligence is really changing academia. Overall, I’m very grateful for my time there.
Recently, you announced a new partnership with the National Football League, where you will bike with the NFL kickoff ball to all 30 NFL stadiums around the country. How did this partnership come about?
BA: I’m working with an NFL partner company and the NFL. It’s a company called Extreme Networks. It’s their marketing stunt. The chief commercial officer of Extreme Networks [Norman Rice Tu’99] is a Tuck alumnus, and so I’ve known him for a couple years. I just met him by chance back in 2024, and he came to me with this idea, and I was like, “Yeah, of course, that’s awesome.”
You usually pack pretty light. How will adding that football to your packing list change the calculus of what you’re carrying?
BA: I’m not allowed to camp for liability reasons, so that will actually make it a lot easier to carry way less things. I’ll just have space in the front of my bike to carry all of my tools and clothing items, because the football will be under my seat in the back. The football takes up all the space that the camping gear would take up, so hopefully it won’t be an issue.
As a solo unsupported rider, you put so much time and effort into planning your routes. What has planning your route for the NFL looked like, given that there are NFL stadiums in every corner of the country?
BA: It’s been kind of difficult, because not only are they in every corner of the country, but they’re obviously in some of the biggest cities in the country, and that makes the riding a bit more dangerous. The route-making has been very meticulous, going road-by-road, trying to find the safest roads. There are a lot of spots that aren’t safe roads, especially out west, where the space between the cities is pretty empty, and so it’s usually just highways. There’s been a ton of coordination with a lot of different entities because I have many sponsors, and they all want in on this, so we have different event stops along the way in different cities. I have different community activities that I have to do, so it’s not just direct between stadiums. Sometimes I have a bit of meandering between the stadiums as well, and so the planning has been for the better part of three months. There’s definitely like a lot of work that goes in, not just on the bike.
What is your route?
BA: I start in Miami on July 7, and then head up to Tampa, Fla., then Jacksonville, Fla. I then cut across the Gulf over to New Orleans, then hit Houston, go north through Texas to Dallas and Kansas City, Mo. I then back down to the South through Nashville, Tenn., Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C. and up the Eastern Seaboard to Foxborough, Mass. I then cut across New York to Buffalo, N.Y., knock off Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis and then across the Great Plains to Denver. I go across the Rockies to Phoenix, in the desert to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles. Then, I go all the way up the Pacific coast, San Francisco and then to Seattle.
From a cultural perspective, what do you see as the role of this ride?
BA: One of the big reasons I’m really excited about this ride is because it’s a chance to bring people together. We’re branding it as “Bond Across America,” kind of a double entendre. Visiting all the big cities, but then also all the space in between is really exciting. You get to see places that you wouldn’t otherwise see. Especially if you’re in a car and you’re on the interstate, you just breeze right past these towns. It’s like connecting the dots, and filling in the space in between is really exciting. I’m hoping that people will come out and ride with me. I’ll have live tracking [on the Follow My Challenge Live Tracker], so anytime I go through a city or a small town, if people want to ride, they can look on the tracker and see when I’m coming through.
You mentioned that you’re going to have events. What are those events going to look like?
BA: There will be a couple group rides leaving out of Trek stores, and then — because we have a corporate partner — I have some corporate events that I have to do at certain stadiums. In Houston, I’m going to an elementary school and having a community ride with a couple hundred youth to promote bikes and getting outside. We’re partnering with a charity called GENYOUth, which promotes health for the young generations through both healthy eating and lifestyle habits.
How are your previous rides influencing how you approach this one?
BA: They give me a really strong base to build from. This ride should, in theory, be a decent bit easier than all my previous rides, both because I’m a stronger rider, and then also I don’t have to do as much mileage per day. There are a couple stretches where I have to do like 250 miles for a couple days in a row, but on the whole, we only have to average about 165 miles a day, which is less than the Pan-American. Cycling through America is a lot easier than cycling the length of two continents, although the heat is going to be something we have to really contend with, which could be a big bummer.
How do you plan to overcome unexpected challenges on your route?
BA: One of the biggest things about ultra-distance cycling is about how you react when things do go wrong. When you’re out there for that long, no matter how well you prepare, things are going to go wrong. You are going to make mistakes. When something does go wrong, it’s about how you react, how you are able to overcome these logistical hurdles.
What does that preparation look like?
BA: Meticulous routemaking, training, mental preparation and getting everything really dialed down, whether it’s my nutrition or my sleep schedule. A lot of it is experience: getting out on the bike and riding a lot of miles, because that’s the only way you can really replicate it. Spending a lot of time by myself thinking about these things on the bike, at a certain point it becomes more about the mental training too.
Ultra-distance cycling is still developing, but growing. As a professional ultra-distance cyclist, what is the role of your social media and your rides in shaping this community?
BA: The community is very young and still finding its footing, but growing incredibly rapidly. It is really cool to think about the fact that I had a front row seat to its development. I think this ride in particular has the potential to inspire people not just to go fast but to do cool things. It’s a little bit outside the realm of your traditional ultra race — it’s more of an adventure, and that’s what really gets me excited. I love racing, but these big multi-month long projects have bigger potential to inspire a better connection to people. People can see this and be like, “Oh, I’ll start biking,” or “Maybe I can go out and ride a hundred miles.” That’s really exciting to me. This is a really cool opportunity to shape the narrative about ultracycling.
August 31 is the two-year anniversary of your Pan-American crossing, and the one-year anniversary of the Eastern Seaboard crossing. With all that we have talked about today, where do you see yourself going as a person and as a rider in the long run?
BA: I wish I knew the answer. Actually, I’m glad I don’t. It’s exciting to not know. I hope that I start making enough money from cycling that I can do more of these adventure rides and continually push the boundary on the adventure side. I have a couple of really big projects that are either many, many months long, or even year-long, that I want to pursue, but this stuff is really expensive, and so I’m just working on building up my following, so that I have the financial security to keep doing the things that I want to do on the bike. Hopefully the stars align, and in five years I’m still out here doing these adventure rides and racing.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
