BigRingVR

BigRingVR BigRingVR brings indoor training with outdoor experience to cyclists around the World. Our application works with the majority of trainers.

By combining the latest technologies with professionally produced content, we deliver a realistic virtual experience over 700 HD + 4K rides covering over 19 countries BigRingVR is a virtual cycling application that helps you get the same full experience indoors as if you are riding outside (elevation gain scenery and a hard workout), but achieve better training results in safer conditions. About 200 high-quality streaming virtual rides from around the World are available to you and more to come. We feature epic climbs from Tour De France, famous Amstel Gold, Giro D’Italia and many others. You can ride in fjords of Norway, Colorado Rocky Mountains, European Alps, Costa Brava in Spain on the same weekend without leaving your own home. The feedback that we are getting from our users is outstanding which makes us very proud. A lot of people who try us for the first time comment that our service and videos exceed expectations and much more exciting than other similar services that exist on the market. We do constantly work on delivering new features and new rides to our users. Our company is growing at a fast pace and we are very happy to see our community growing fast with us as well. Just create an account and give it try. We do offer an option to try for free before you buy our service. Learn more about BigRingVR application and a library of available rides by visiting our website at https://bigringvr.com/getting-started.aspx
Cheers!

  v8 build 109 released — Training Plans are here! (Release Candidate 1)49 builds since 8.0.0.960, and the big news is T...
10/19/2026

v8 build 109 released — Training Plans are here! (Release Candidate 1)

49 builds since 8.0.0.960, and the big news is Training Plans: structured training on real roads, in the app and on our website. BigRingVR 8 is now feature-complete, and this is our first Release Candidate — from here until the official BigRingVR 8 release, together with our new website, every build is about polish and fixes, so your feedback on this one counts more than ever.

⏱️ 1. Training Plans — structured training on real roads

This is the biggest addition to BigRingVR in a long time. A new Training tab on the left bar brings structured training to BigRingVR, included with your subscription. Every workout scales to your FTP, and you ride it on a real road of your choice — a climb in the Alps, a coastal road, a valley you've always wanted to see.

- Plans — 18 training plans in 6 categories: Getting Started, General Fitness, Build FTP, Climbing, Endurance / Gran Fondo, and Race & Event Prep. Every category comes with 3 plans, from easier to harder, so you can start where you are today and step up when you're ready. Pick your training days and start — your sessions are scheduled for you.
- My plan — your week at a glance: today's session, what's next, and your progress through the plan. Choose a Ride picks the road for today's workout; Skip moves on.
- Workouts — we've added new workouts, and the BigRingVR library now has 68 of them. All in one list, filtered by name, type, tag, time, TSS and intensity, with a power profile for every workout. Your own .zwo, .erg and .mrc files appear here too (Show → My workouts).

Riding a workout is now as easy as it gets: pick the workout first, then Choose a Ride takes you to the Rides list to pick the road — the workout comes along with you. Prefer to start from a ride? Pick the ride first and choose a workout before you start, just as you always have.

Home shows your next training session, so today's workout is one click away.

In the app or on the web — your choice. You can also browse, start and manage your training plan on our preview website: https://preview.bigringvr.com/training — it looks and works the same as in the app, and it's the same plan in both places. Start a plan on the website tonight, ride today's session in the app tomorrow; pick whichever you like.

🎨 2. A new look — everything in one window

- Settings now opens right inside the app, with General, Ride Experience, Account, Rider Profile, Videos, Sensors, Trainer, Integrations and About side by side. The first-run wizard, sensor setup, speed test and sign-in open inside the app too.
- The left bar now carries your sensor lights (green while data is coming in) and your profile picture — click them for Settings → Sensors and Account.
- Theme and Check for Updates sit on the left bar, one click away, together with Feedback.

🗺️ 3. Rides on a map

Switch the Rides list between List and Map (top right). Every ride is a pin at its start, coloured by difficulty. Click a pin to see the ride on the right, ready to ride. Pick a country or type a name and the map shows you where those rides are. Zoom with the + / − buttons or your mouse wheel.

⭐ 4. Favourites and scheduled rides, one click

Every ride card and ride page has a ★ to favourite it and a 🔔 to schedule it — the same lists you see on the website and on Home. Build a Queue now sits at the top of the Rides list, next to List and Map.

📡 5. Sensors on Mac

Bluetooth heart rate, cadence, speed and power sensors on Mac stream their data from the moment they connect.

🏁 6. Ride queues

- Riding a queue? Press T to switch the metrics bar to totals for the whole queue — distance, time, climbing and averages — and T again for this ride. A small 2/3 on the time dial shows where you are in the queue.
- Between rides in a queue: Enter (or Continue now) rolls straight on, Esc ends the queue, S skips the next ride.

⬆️ Updating

- Already on BigRingVR 8.x? You'll get this build automatically — just accept the in-app update prompt.
- Upgrading from BigRingVR 7.x? Please uninstall 7.x first, then follow the install steps in our earlier post:
https://www.strava.com/clubs/187025/posts/48786305

⚠️ System requirements: BigRingVR 8 runs on Windows 10/11 (64-bit), including Snapdragon/ARM laptops, and macOS 13 (Ventura) or higher. The Mac build is universal — native on Apple Silicon (M-series) and Intel Macs.

Download:
Windows: https://bigringvreu4.blob.core.windows.net/download/BigRingVR-8.0.1.109-Setup.exe
Mac (Intel & Apple Silicon): https://bigringvreu4.blob.core.windows.net/download/BigRingVR-8.0.1.109-macos-universal.dmg

What would help most from this round

1. Start a training plan — in the app or on the website — and tell us how your first week feels.
2. Mac riders with Bluetooth sensors: a quick ride with your heart rate strap, cadence or power meter.
3. Explore Rides on the map and tell us what you'd like to see there next.
4. Look around the new Settings — anything you can't find, let us know.

As always — if anything looks wrong, Settings → General → Upload Logs to Support right after the ride is worth more than a description.

Thank you all and Cheers!

  8.0.0.960 released — What's New46 builds since 8.0.0.914, and the app has a new front door: BigRingVR now opens on a H...
10/16/2026

8.0.0.960 released — What's New

46 builds since 8.0.0.914, and the app has a new front door: BigRingVR now opens on a Home screen, and Challenges have a tab of their own.

🏠 1. A new Home screen

A bar down the left side now takes you between Home, Rides and Challenges. Home brings together everything about you in one place:

- Scheduled rides — your to-do list of rides, ready to go. Show all opens the Rides list with your scheduled rides already filtered.
- Top rated rides you haven't done — the five best-rated rides you haven't completed yet. A great answer to "what should I ride today?"
- Your challenges — progress and days left on every live challenge. Click one to open it.
- Recent rides — your last five rides from any computer. Ride again takes you straight to the ride (and offers to resume it if you stopped part-way); Activity opens the ride's page on the website.
- What's new — new rides and BigRingVR news side by side. 'Ride it' starts a new ride; Read more opens the article right inside the app.

Every ride on Home shows its difficulty pill — the same colours as the Rides list — so you know whether it's green or purple before you pick it.

New installs open on Home. If you're already riding with us, BigRingVR keeps opening on Rides — and you can customize which screen the app shows on startup: Home, Rides or Challenges (Preferences → General → Start screen).

🏆 2. Challenges — their own tab

All our challenges in one place, looking just like they do on the website: live now, coming up, and those that ended in the past year.

Open a challenge to see:
- the total distance, elevation and difficulty, start and end dates;
- how far through the challenge period we are, and your own progress (rides done out of the total);
- every ride in order — rides you've completed show a ✓ and a green Ride again, the rest a Ride it that starts the ride straight from the challenge;
- the leaderboard — Fastest and Distance, medals for the top three, and My position to jump to your row.

When you finish a ride, Home and your challenge progress update by themselves.

🗺️ 3. A bigger in-ride map

The map now comes in Small, Medium and Large. Press Z during a ride to cycle through them, use the right-click menu, or set it in Preferences → Ride Experience → Map Options → Map size. Large also zooms out a step, so you see more of the road ahead. Thanks Joe for the idea!

📡 4. Sensors and trainers

- Your trainer's resistance, made visible. If your trainer stops accepting resistance changes, a banner tells you — "Your trainer isn't accepting resistance changes" — so you know straight away why a climb feels flat, and what to do about it. When it recovers, you'll see "Trainer resistance is working again."
- Cadence drops to 0 within 3 seconds of your last pedal stroke, including on sensors that go quiet when the cranks stop.
- If a cadence sensor stops sending mid-ride, your trainer's cadence takes over, so the number keeps going.
- Bluetooth heart rate and cadence sensors start sending data sooner after they connect, and hold the connection.
- A trainer that keeps connecting and dropping is retried at a steady pace, which keeps the app stable while it sorts itself out.
- Old sensors you no longer use? If a configured sensor hasn't connected for many rides while your others have, BigRingVR offers to remove it — at start-up and in Preferences → Sensors.

🌐 5. Our new website

Every website link in the app now opens our new site, preview.bigringvr.com — ride pages, your activities, challenges and news. Look for the preview announcement in What's new on the Home screen, and make sure to check it out if you haven't already: https://preview.bigringvr.com

⬆️ Updating
- Already on BigRingVR 8.x? You'll get this build automatically — just accept the in-app update prompt.
- Upgrading from BigRingVR 7.x? Please uninstall 7.x first, then follow the install steps in our earlier post: https://www.strava.com/clubs/187025/posts/48786305

⚠️ System requirements: BigRingVR 8 runs on Windows 10/11 (64-bit), including Snapdragon/ARM laptops, and macOS 13 (Ventura) or higher. The Mac build is universal — native on Apple Silicon (M-series) and Intel Macs.

Download:
Windows: https://bigringvreu4.blob.core.windows.net/download/BigRingVR-8.0.0.960-Setup.exe
Mac (Intel & Apple Silicon): https://bigringvreu4.blob.core.windows.net/download/BigRingVR-8.0.0.960-macos-universal.dmg

What would help most from this round

1. Look around Home and Challenges and tell us what you'd like to see there next.
2. Try the Large map — press Z during a ride.
3. If you ever see the trainer resistance banner, please send your logs right after that ride.
4. Which Start screen did you pick? Home, Rides or Challenges — we'd love to know.

As always — if anything looks wrong, Preferences → General → Upload Logs to Support right after the ride is worth more than a description.

Thank you all and Cheers !

The new BigRingVR preview website is here — fully working, and faster than everWe've rebuilt the BigRingVR website from ...
10/13/2026

The new BigRingVR preview website is here — fully working, and faster than ever

We've rebuilt the BigRingVR website from the ground up, on the latest technology, and today we're opening it to you as a preview:

https://preview.bigringvr.com

✅ THE COMPLETE, FULLY WORKING SITE, RUNNING ON YOUR LIVE ACCOUNT
Sign in as usual and everything you do counts: subscribe or renew, manage your account, delete an activity — it all works exactly as on www.bigringvr.com, and shows up on both sites straight away. The current site stays as it is while the preview runs, so switch between them whenever you like.

⚡ Fast. Really fast.
Every page was rebuilt for speed. Your activities, the ride catalogue and challenges simply appear, and the site stays just as quick when lots of riders are on at the same time. It was built to grow with all of you.

📊 Your Dashboard
How is my riding actually going? Your last four weeks against the four before, consistency, 12-week volume, climbing this year, FTP trend, personal bests, challenge progress and your saved rides — all on one page, from rides you've already done. Nothing to set up.

📅 Training Calendar
Your whole year at a glance: twelve months as daily sparklines. Click a month for the full calendar, every day shaded by how long you rode.

🚴 Richer activity pages
Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, TSS, best power at every duration, effort distribution, decoupling, efficiency and average torque, all marked against your training zones and saved with every ride so you can compare any two. New to a metric? Tap the ? beside it.

🎨 Make it yours
Eight themes (three light, five dark) and thirteen languages.

📖 Updated help pages
Getting Started, Using BigRingVR and the FAQ now cover BigRingVR 8: Bluetooth and ANT+ on Windows and Mac, ride queues, FIT files with HRV and pedal balance, and every keyboard shortcut.

Have a look and tell us what you think in the comments. Your ideas go straight on our list for the new site.

Cheers!

Mangart Junction, a new ride from Slovenia is now available online!Mangart Junction, Tolmin, Sloveniahttps://bigringvr.c...
10/12/2026

Mangart Junction, a new ride from Slovenia is now available online!

Mangart Junction, Tolmin, Slovenia
https://bigringvr.com/ride?rideid=2891

Distance: 9.49 km
Elevation Gain: 567 m
Elevation Loss: 0 m
Difficulty: 468 (Moderate)
FIETS Index: 3.39 FIETS

Avg Grade: 5.98 %
Max cat climb: 2
Min elevation: 514 m
Max elevation: 1081 m
Ride Category: Climb

The ride from the Koritnica Valley to the Mangart junction is a journey through a high-alpine landscape defined by its sheer scale. As you ascend from the glacial valley floor near Log pod Mangartom, you are flanked by the immense Loška stena—a limestone wall rising nearly 1,000 meters above you—and the jagged peaks of the Mangart and Jalovec massifs. Historically, this route was a lifeline for the Isonzo Front during World War I, where the Austro-Hungarian army utilized the valley’s deep, hidden geography for logistics. You will pass the Predel Fortress ruins and the iconic Mangart Viaduct, an engineering marvel that bridges a deep ravine, marking the transition from the protected valley into the exposed high-mountain terrain.

For cyclists, this segment serves as a rigorous transition from the scenic valley floor to the high-mountain terrain. The road winds upward through dense beech forests, requiring a steady, focused effort as the landscape becomes increasingly dramatic. It is often treated as the ultimate "threshold" ride, leading to the high-altitude junction near the viaduct where the path diverges. Many riders use this climb as a standalone challenge or as a mandatory warm-up before deciding whether to tackle the legendary Mangart Road or finish the final stretch to the Italian border.

Cheers!

Transalpina South (Part 1, Ranca), a new ride from Transylvania, Romania is now available online!Transalpina South (Part...
10/05/2026

Transalpina South (Part 1, Ranca), a new ride from Transylvania, Romania is now available online!

Transalpina South (Part 1, Ranca), Transylvania, Romania
https://bigringvr.com/ride?rideid=2983

Distance: 18.23 km
Elevation Gain: 1176 m
Elevation Loss: 63 m
Difficulty: 1013 (Hard)
FIETS Index: 7 FIETS

Avg Grade: 6.27 %
Max cat climb: HC
Min elevation: 478 m
Max elevation: 1594 m
Ride Category: Climb

Welcome to Transylvania, Romania—a captivating realm where the legendary lore of Dracula intersects with the dramatic, fog-shrouded peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, ancient medieval fortresses, and timeless alpine landscapes.

The Transalpina, officially designated as National Road DN67C, is the highest paved road in Romania, reaching its apex at 2,145 meters in the Urdele Pass. Traversing the Parang Mountains from south to north, this high-altitude corridor traces ancient pathways used by shepherds moving flocks between Wallachia and Transylvania. The surrounding terrain features rugged crystalline schists, glacial cirques, and expansive alpine meadows above the tree line. The southern approach begins in the town of Novaci at an elevation of roughly 500 meters, ascending steadily along forested slopes before breaking out onto open ridges with panoramic views of the Southern Carpathians.

Rising along this route, the mountain resort of Ranca sits at approximately 1,600 meters elevation, serving as the main gateway to the high alpine section of the Transalpina. Emerging in the 1930s as a modest shelter managed by local forestry authorities, it expanded significantly into a popular destination for both summer hiking and winter sports. The long, continuous, and steady push up out of Novaci makes the resort a central focal point for endurance challenges and road cycling events, acting as the primary staging point and regrouping zone before riders tackle the final exposed, high-altitude ramps leading to Urdele Pass.

Cheers!

Tour of East Norway, Stage 4 (Filefjell), a new ride from Innlandet, Norway is now available online!Tour of East Norway,...
09/28/2026

Tour of East Norway, Stage 4 (Filefjell), a new ride from Innlandet, Norway is now available online!

Tour of East Norway, Stage 4 (Filefjell), Innlandet, Norway
https://bigringvr.com/ride?rideid=2907

Distance: 18.59 km
Elevation Gain: 420 m
Elevation Loss: 24 m
Difficulty: 232 (Easy)
FIETS Index: 0.84 FIETS

Avg Grade: 2.13 %
Max cat climb: 2
Min elevation: 472 m
Max elevation: 867 m
Ride Category: Hilly

Filefjell is a high-altitude mountainous region in Norway that serves as a vital natural corridor between Eastern and Western Norway. Spanning the border area where Innlandet and Vestland counties meet—near the Jotunheimen mountain range—the area is characterized by a vast, rugged plateau of tundra, glacial lakes, and steep alpine terrain. Because the main European route E16 passes through a protective valley here, it remains one of the most reliable and year-round accessible mountain crossings in the country.

Beyond its geography, Filefjell is deeply significant as the site of the historic Kongevegen (the King’s Road). Completed in the 1790s as the first road capable of supporting horse-drawn carts between Oslo and Bergen, it replaced treacherous medieval bridle paths. Today, sections of this historic route have been restored as a premier hiking and cultural attraction, featuring landmarks like the nearby Borgund Stave Church. For those exploring the area, the route offers a world-class cycling experience, winding through dramatic mountain vistas and fjord-side valleys that showcase Norway’s rich engineering and travel heritage.

Cheers!

Passo Daone (South side), a new ride from Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy is now available online!Passo Daone (South side), T...
09/21/2026

Passo Daone (South side), a new ride from Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy is now available online!

Passo Daone (South side), Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
https://bigringvr.com/ride?rideid=2890

Distance: 13.63 km
Elevation Gain: 803 m
Elevation Loss: 43 m
Difficulty: 799 (Hard)
FIETS Index: 4.84 FIETS

Avg Grade: 9.16 %
Max cat climb: 1
Min elevation: 499 m
Max elevation: 1297 m
Ride Category: Climb

The ascent from Preore is a masterclass in Trentino’s rugged geography, beginning at an elevation of roughly 600 meters where the Sarca River carves through the valley floor. As you leave the village, the road immediately asserts its authority with a relentless 9.6% average gradient that snake-charms its way through the dense chestnut and beech forests of the Giudicarie. This eastern approach is favored by purists for its superior asphalt and the way it clings to the mountainside, offering glimpses of the Brenta Dolomites through the canopy. Geography geeks will appreciate how the climb traverses the crystalline rocks of the Adamello group, a stark contrast to the sedimentary limestone found just across the valley.

Historically, this ribbon of asphalt transitioned from a quiet forestry connection to a cycling cathedral during the 2015 Giro d’Italia. On Stage 16, the peloton tackled the Passo Daone as the penultimate climb before the finish at Madonna di Campiglio; it was here that the race exploded, with the steep ramps reaching 14% serving as the ultimate filter for the General Classification contenders. Riding past the alpine hamlets of Montagne (Larzana, Binio, and Cort), you aren’t just fighting gravity; you’re retracing the tire tracks of elite climbers who transformed these quiet 8.1 kilometers into a theater of suffering. Reaching the 1,292-meter summit feels less like a casual peak and more like a hard-won audience with the glacial peaks of the Carè Alto.

Cheers!
BigRingVR.RealRoads(4K);

Italian Road, a new ride from Graubünden, Switzerland is now available online!Italian Road, Graubünden, Switzerlandhttps...
09/14/2026

Italian Road, a new ride from Graubünden, Switzerland is now available online!

Italian Road, Graubünden, Switzerland
https://bigringvr.com/ride?rideid=2878

Distance: 25.77 km
Elevation Gain: 869 m
Elevation Loss: 93 m
Difficulty: 595 (Moderate)
FIETS Index: 2.33 FIETS

Avg Grade: 3.01 %
Max cat climb: 1
Min elevation: 724 m
Max elevation: 1500 m
Ride Category: Climb

The Italienische Strasse (Italian Road) is a masterclass in Alpine drama, serving as the historic artery that sliced through the once-impassable Viamala Gorge to link Northern Europe with Italy. Completed in the 1820s, this engineered marvel replaced treacherous mule tracks with a smooth carriage road, effectively opening the gates for trade and cultural exchange between the Rhaeto-Romanic and Lombard peoples. Geographically, the route is defined by its vertical intensity; it begins in the deep, shadowy chasms of the Hinterrhein river near Thusis and gradually climbs into the sun-drenched high meadows of the Rheinwald, passing the famous 12th-century ceiling paintings of Zillis along the way.

For a cyclist, this stretch—known as Route 13 of the Swiss national network—is a rewarding 27-kilometer ascent that demands a steady rhythm. The road snakes upward from Thusis (approx. 700m) to the stone-clad village of Splügen at 1,450m, offering a gain of roughly 750 meters with an average gradient that remains manageable despite the rugged surroundings. Pedaling through the Roffla Gorge, you’ll encounter galleries blasted directly into the rock and bridges that hang over thundering waterfalls, providing a sensory experience that far outweighs the physical effort. Reaching the historic center of Splügen, a village recognized with the Wakker Prize for its preservation, serves as the perfect victory lap.

Cheers!

  8.0.0.644 released — What's New**🎬 Streaming rebuilt**Several of you reported problems streaming rides — video freezin...
09/08/2026

8.0.0.644 released — What's New

**🎬 Streaming rebuilt**

Several of you reported problems streaming rides — video freezing or dropping out mid-ride. We've **completely rebuilt and optimised the video buffer**.

BigRingVR now keeps a deep reserve of video ahead of you at all times. If your connection dips, the ride **pauses briefly and recovers on its own**, picking up where you've actually pedalled to rather than freezing. Most of the streaming problems you've run into should simply be gone.

What we can't fix is a connection that's genuinely too slow for the quality you've chosen. If you still hit trouble, **pre-download the ride** — that remains the reliable option on a weak connection.

**❤️ Heart-rate variability (HRV)**

Rides now record **beat-to-beat HRV** and include it in the FIT file, so **Strava, TrainingPeaks and Intervals.icu** get it automatically. Works with all ANT+ heart-rate straps and any Bluetooth strap that reports beat timing.

**📂 Better handling of FIT files**

- **Failed uploads now recover properly.** If an upload to Strava or TrainingPeaks failed, the app could get stuck and never retry it. Fixed.
- **"Load Competitor from file" now accepts `.fit`** — so you can race against an activity exported from Garmin or Strava, not just a TCX.

**🖱️ ERG and Coach from the right-click menu**

The in-ride right-click menu was missing the ERG and Coach controls, so those were keyboard-only. They're there now — useful if you ride from a laptop trackpad. The menu also scrolls instead of running off the bottom of the screen.

**📶 Bluetooth trainers**

If your smart trainer is also listed as your cadence or speed sensor, the app used to open **two Bluetooth connections to it**. On Windows that could quietly stop trainer resistance control from working while power kept reading normally. It now uses the single trainer connection for everything.

**Expected cosmetic change:** if your trainer was also your speed sensor, the **Speed indicator will now be grey**. Nothing is broken — BigRingVR calculates your road speed from power and the gradient, so a speed sensor has no job on a smart trainer. It was only ever showing green because of that duplicate connection.

# # ⬆️ Updating
- **Already on BigRingVR 8.x?** You'll get this build automatically — just accept the in-app update prompt.
- **Upgrading from BigRingVR 7.x?** Please **uninstall 7.x first**, then follow the install steps in our earlier post: https://www.strava.com/clubs/187025/posts/48786305

⚠️ System requirements: BigRingVR 8 runs on Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and macOS 13 (Ventura) or higher. The Mac build is universal — native on Apple Silicon (M-series) and Intel Macs.

Download:
Windows: https://bigringvreu4.blob.core.windows.net/download/BigRingVR-8.0.0.644-Setup.exe
Mac (Intel & Apple Silicon): https://bigringvreu4.blob.core.windows.net/download/BigRingVR-8.0.0.644-macos-universal.dmg

**What would help most from this round**

1. **Stream a ride rather than downloading it**.
2. **Ride one all the way to the finish line.**
3. **Bluetooth trainer users:** confirm your **cadence still reads normally**, including when you stop pedalling.
4. **If you use a heart-rate strap:** check whether HRV shows up on Strava / Intervals after your ride.

As always — if anything looks wrong, **Preferences → General → Upload Logs to Support** right after the ride is worth more than a description.

Thank you all and Cheers !

NC500 (Part 1, Knockan Crag), a new ride from UK is now available online!NC500 (Part 1, Knockan Crag), Scotland, UKhttps...
09/07/2026

NC500 (Part 1, Knockan Crag), a new ride from UK is now available online!

NC500 (Part 1, Knockan Crag), Scotland, UK
https://bigringvr.com/ride?rideid=2969

Distance: 18.47 km
Elevation Gain: 204 m
Elevation Loss: 164 m
Difficulty: 128 (Easy)
FIETS Index: 0.47 FIETS

Avg Grade: 3.53 %
Max cat climb: 4
Min elevation: 124 m
Max elevation: 259 m
Ride Category: Rollers

The North Coast 500 (NC500) traces a 516-mile (830 km) loop around northern Scotland, starting and ending at Inverness Castle. The route spans six historic regions—Easter Ross, Black Isle, Wester Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, and Inverness-shire—where rolling glens meet dramatic sea cliffs, remote Atlantic estuaries, and isolated crofting communities. The landscape is built on some of Europe’s oldest rock, including three-billion-year-old Lewisian gneiss and Torridonian sandstone monoliths set above vast peat bogs. Human history dates to the Mesolithic era, leaving Iron Age brochs, Pictish stones, medieval strongholds, and ruins from the Highland Clearances. For cyclists, the route packs roughly 10,000 meters (32,800 feet) of elevation gain across fast eastern A-roads and narrow western single-track lanes with passing places and steep gradients. Prevailing Atlantic winds and sudden maritime weather demand constant adaptability through this raw Highland landscape.

Marking the first segment of the tour, this stretch through Sutherland passes through the UNESCO North West Highlands Geopark, featuring a glaciated terrain shaped over billions of years. The area centers on the Moine Thrust Belt at Knockan Crag, an internationally recognized geological landmark where three-billion-year-old Lewisian gneiss was driven over younger Torridonian sandstone and quartzite. Solitary inselbergs like Cul Mòr, Canisp, and the distinctive, tooth-like ridge of Suilven tower above vast expanses of heather, blanket bog, and open lochans. Along the shores of Loch Assynt, the ruined 15th-century stronghold of Ardvreck Castle and the neighboring shell of Calda House anchor centuries of Clan MacLeod history to this wild, windswept corridor.

Cheers!

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Denver, CO

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