About
Why we ride, and why these two days.
There are two days each year when the Earth tilts to its extreme — one bathed in as much light as the sky can hold, one swallowed by the longest darkness of the year. The Solstice exists because those days are worth getting on a bike for.
Being outside on a bike is one of the best things there is. The way a long ride fills up the hours. The particular quiet of roads before sunrise, or after sunset. The way a day spent pedaling feels genuinely complete in a way that not many days do. Most of us who ride know this feeling and keep coming back to it.
The solstices are the year's two most extreme days — and that felt like exactly the right reason to ride. Not a race, not a charity event, not a sponsored gran fondo. Just a simple idea: go ride on one of these two remarkable days, record it, and share it with everyone else who did the same thing.
The Solstice Cycle
A Solstice Cycle is the combined mileage of any two consecutive solstice rides — one summer, one winter. The order doesn't matter and the year doesn't matter. Ride the summer solstice first, then the winter. Start with winter and finish the following summer. Whatever the sequence, the two rides together complete the cycle: the longest day and the longest night, both ridden.
There's no fixed start or end — submit either event first and your combined total starts building immediately. Submit the other when you ride it and the cycle is complete. Your most recent summer and winter rides always make up your current total.
You can submit just one event if that's all you rode — it'll appear on the individual event leaderboard and your Solstice Cycle entry with a dash for the missing ride. But the whole point is both.
The Two Events
Winter Solstice
The longest night of the year, around December 21st. Ride from sundown to sunrise — or any part of that darkness. The roads are empty and the world is still. There's something irreplaceable about riding through it.
Summer Solstice
The longest day of the year, around June 21st. Sunrise to sunset — as many miles as the light allows. The mornings come early and the evenings go late. All of it is yours to ride through.
How It Works
There's no registration, no entry fee, no official course, and no timing chip. You ride on the solstice — wherever you are, whatever route you want — and record it on any GPS device. After the ride, you export a GPX file and submit it on this site. Your mileage is calculated automatically and added to the leaderboard.
Submit each ride after you complete it — summer after June 21st, winter after December 21st. Each submission is automatically linked to your Solstice Cycle and your combined total updates on the leaderboard as your rides come in, regardless of the order you submit them.
Your name on the leaderboard is optional. You can ride anonymously, or put your name up there. Either is fine. The point isn't the ranking — it's the shared record of everyone who chose to be out there on the same days.
The Spirit of It
The Solstice runs on the honor system. We trust that you rode, and we trust that your GPS file reflects what you actually did. This is a community of people who love cycling, and it works because people who love cycling tend to be honest about it.
There are no prizes. There's no finish line. What there is: a record of everyone who rode on one of the year's most special days — and the quiet satisfaction of knowing you were one of them.
See you out there.
Ready to Ride?
Check the instructions for how to record and submit your ride.