[A cyclist riding on the road. Photo Credit to Pixnio]

On July 7th, 2026, less than a month after graduating from Dartmouth College, Bond Almand clipped into his pedals in Miami, Florida, and embarked on his journey to Seattle until September 9th. 

Almand, a multi-world-record holder in ultra-distance cycling, already broke the world record for the North-South Pan-American bike crossing, completing a journey from Alaska to the bottom of Argentina in just 75 days. 

He is now biking solo to all 30 NFL stadiums across the United States, with the  official NFL kickoff game ball strapped beneath his seat. 

The journey, officially titled “Bond’s Extreme Journey,” is backed by corporate technology partner Extreme Networks, supported by the NFL and Oakley, and is also connected to a charitable mission. 

To date, Bond has traveled approximately 9400 miles, visiting 28 of 30 NFL stadiums.

The route that Almand took tells a story that is genuinely about America and not just about football. 

He describes ultra-distance cycling as a sport still finding its footing but growing incredibly rapidly, and says that adventure rides like this one have a bigger potential to inspire connection than traditional racing. 

What makes Almand distinctive in the ultra-cycling world is not just his speed but his framing–he consistently talks about the space between destinations as points, not inconvenience.

Almand commenced his journey in Miami, traveled up through Tampa and Jacksonville before crossing the Gulf to New Orleans. 

He then heads through Houston, Dallas, and Kansas City before swinging south through Nashville, Atlanta, and Charlotte, up the Eastern Seaboard to Foxborough, across to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Green Bay, and Minneapolis.

Then, he will cross the Great Plains to Denver, over the Rockies to Phoenix, through the desert to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and finally up the Pacific coast through San Francisco to Seattle.

He said that this route was more challenging than his previous crossings, as NFL stadiums are located in some of the biggest and most dangerous cities in the country for cycling, requiring meticulous road-by-road planning, particularly to the west where the only options between cities are often highways.

The route itself is not just a straight line across a map, but it is an outline and a comprehensive portrait of the country’s geography, from the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest. 

Almand estimates he will need to average approximately 165 miles per day across the journey, with some stretches requiring 250 miles over consecutive days. 

It is less demanding on a daily basis than his Pan-American crossing, but complicated by the summer heat, city traffic, the pressure of a fixed delivery deadline, and the coordination demands of sponsors, community events, and media appearances at each stop. 

The heat is one of the hardest parts of Almand’s journey. 

A July departure from Miami means that Almand will be cycling through the American South in the highest weeks of the year, and the desert stretches between Phoenix and Los Angeles in August are among the most physically hostile environments a road cyclist can face.

Almand framed the ride’s cultural purpose as a “Bond Across America,” framing it as a chance to visit not just the big cities where NFL stadiums sit, but the towns of the stadiums. 

The NFL is one of the few things in American life that genuinely connects Miami to Green Bay to Seattle, and cycling between all 30 of its homes forces a confrontation with everything that sits between those points. 

A Dartmouth graduate biking across America with a football under his seat is, on the surface, a story that sounds almost impossible. 

However, at 22 years old, Bond Almand is already a world record holder, and the game ball is about to be in Seattle on September 9 whether or not anyone takes the journey seriously.

As Almand pedals toward Seattle for the NFL’s September kickoff, his journey will come to an end– but its impact may continue through the bicycle auction and the charitable mission it was designed to support.