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Bond Almand, famous in cycling circles for his Alaska-to-Argentina endurance exploits, began a trip 60 days ago biking to each of the National Football League’s 30 stadiums, carrying an official ball. The effort is to raise awareness for the GENYOUth and NFL’s PLAY 60 initiatives; his Trek bike, an official Super Bowl ball, and his game tickets from the trip-ending stop in Seattle will be auctioned off to support the cause. Almand started in Miami and arrives in Seattle, where he was born, after a 65-day sojourn and 11,000 miles, as the NFL kicks off its first week of action on Wednesday. For the majority of the trip, Almand was alone, carrying only a bag containing a change of clothes, equipment to fix his bike, and charging cords. He stopped in Eureka on Thursday night and was set to depart on the next leg of his venture Friday morning. “It’s been a really incredible experience,” said Almand. “It’s been a great distance every day, where I do have to be pretty intentional, biking the entire day because I have a lot of ground to cover. But I’ve also had a bit of liberty to stop here and there throughout the day and see the sights. And then each stage of the journey has kind of presented its own challenges. It was super hot in the beginning in the south, and then there was a lot of traffic up the East Coast. And then the plains were a little bit more boring and isolating. And then the mountains were hard. The desert was hard, and then the rain has been something to contend with on the coast here. But it’s been just a fantastic experience.” He said the trip did not start as his idea. “They actually came to me with the idea to bike the football to every stadium,” said Almand of his partner and promoter on the trip, Extreme Networks. “And one of the things that Extreme Networks does is provide Wi-Fi solutions for big events, like stadiums (have). Obviously, it’s a super-complex problem: how to provide Wi-Fi for 100,000 people all at once. I met the NFL, and that idea of connecting people kind of took us through my biking as well. Because when I bike, I try to stop and meet people along the way, and tell my story, and try to connect communities and people.” “I love biking, but it’s a really selfish endeavor at the end of the day,” he added. “If I’m just out there kind of by myself, people are kind of worrying about me, but when I can make the ride bigger than just my bike and me, that’s something that I really appreciate. So tying in the training aspect has been really amazing. We’re going to auction off this bike and the Super Bowl game ball, and two tickets to the first game this season, and all those proceeds will go to GENYOUth, which is really exciting. I believe, especially in today’s world, where I feel like people are spending less time outside, less movement, more time on their phones, it’s good to be promoting (that) at a young age.” GENYOUth is dedicated to ending student hunger and increasing access to physical activity, with the mission to “equip schools with critical tools and resources to provide students with greater access to nutrition and physical activity.” “We’ve been donating to some of the communities we’ve gone through,” said Almand. “We have donated flag football gear to some of the communities, some of these underserved public schools, because that’s another place Extreme serves.” He highlighted how Extreme does Wi-Fi for some schools and school districts, tying in because Play 60 is “more like flag football for the youth.” For 20 seasons, the NFL PLAY 60 initiative has been the league’s national youth health and wellness platform to empower youth to get physically active for at least 60 minutes a day and encourage a healthy lifestyle. Almand expressed a strong affinity for the Seattle Seahawks and said Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was a highlight. He did need a bit of support during a 10-day segment of his trip through Utah, Arizona, and parts of California and Nevada where water access was at a premium, and he said his girlfriend and photographer helped out. Almand said that through the challenge of the heat, Death Valley was “the pinnacle,” describing its “insane temperatures” but amazing landscape. What he found helpful in navigating the harder part of his trip was “chunking,” breaking the race down day by day and mile by mile. “I really like seeing places that I’ve only seen on maps,” said Almand of the most gratifying part of his journey. “And I can see them in person. … Biking is the perfect speed where you can see a lot in a day, but you’re not moving too fast, and you don’t, as you would in a car, miss things, and then when you’re walking you get a little bit too slow. So you’re just able to cover a great amount of ground, and the bike has this disarming effect. Every time I pull over, people are more likely to approach me, and I’m not scary at all because I kind of just look ridiculous.” He considers the changes over time. “When you’re biking, it’s very apparent how every single inch of the United States has looked different than it would have several 100 years ago,” he said. “Whether it’s grazing land or most of the forests that have been completely cut down, or anytime I’m biking, I’m on a road that has been put there by humans. So it’s interesting how much we’ve changed the landscape. And a lot of times I think about what this would have looked like several 100 years ago before we came here. I’ve had some interesting takeaways about the United States. Some days I feel like this bike ride makes me love my country more, and then some days it makes me not like my country as much. It kind of just depends. A lot of the country looks somewhat homogeneous, like you can walk out the door here and see a McDonald’s, and you can see McDonald’s pretty much in any city in the U.S. But at the same time, every community is definitely different, and so I love getting to a city and trying to finger that pulse and see, okay, what about this place is really unique?” California has offered some challenges for him. “I guess most people know me from biking from Alaska to Argentina in 2024,” he said, “which I still consider my greatest achievement. And that ride was just another level of difficulty, whereas this one is a lot more manageable. But the whole trip, it’s been pretty much the entire trip until LA, really hot and just a lot of different difficult things to deal with. Then once I got towards San Francisco, it’s just been absolutely wonderful. The rain has been a little bit cold, but I’d rather be a little bit cold than 115 degrees, like it was in the desert. And it’s just so beautiful here. … So it’s been fantastic, and I’m feeling really grateful to be here.” Almand finishes the next segment of his trip in Gold Beach, Oregon. After he completes the 11,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, he said, “I actually have a bikepacking race to do a big loop around Vermont, 640 miles, the week after I’m finished. So I won’t be really well rested for that race, and then another week after that race, I have another 1,000-mile race in Arkansas. I’m definitely staying busy for the next month. But then I’m writing a book this winter about my Pan-American journey in 2024. I’m always keeping my eye on the next big project. These big projects are really what keep me motivated. I love racing, but I’m always looking for that next big fight, and I don’t really know what that is yet, but hopefully something falls in my lap for next year.” His goal is to cycle professionally as long as possible. Almand’s ultra-endurance cycling world records • Fastest N-S Crossing of America (2025) • Pan-American World Record (2024) • South America (N-S) World Record (2024) • North America (N-S) World Record (2024) • Canada to Mexico Fastest Known Time (2024) • Most Miles Ridden in the World (May & Oct 2024)