Places worth stopping for.
A cyclist’s atlas of the cafés, climbs, viewpoints and landmarks along the road, each with a photograph and a short story. Start with a collection, or take a region whole.
Collections
worldwideCafés owned by pro cyclistsWhere the peloton went when it stopped racing: behind the coffee machine.
worldwideCafés at the foot of the climbCoffee at the bottom of the climb, and cake at the top.
North AmericaThe highest paved roads in North AmericaWhere the tarmac stops climbing, from Mount Blue Sky down.
Hauts-de-France, FranceThe pavé of Paris–RoubaixThe worst stones in cycling, in the order the race meets them.
Flanders, BelgiumThe cobbled bergs of FlandersShort, steep and paved in granite. The climbs the Ronde is built from.Flanders, BelgiumKoers kaffees of the RondeFlemish bars where the racing is the standing subject, beside the course.EuropeCafés inside cycling's templesCoffee inside the velodrome, the museum, the champion's own centre.
Girona · Côte d'Azur · Mallorca · ColoradoThe test climbs of the prosThe climbs professionals use to find out what shape they are in.
worldwideHairpin heaven: the most switchbacks on one climbThe climbs that turn back on themselves so often the road becomes a staircase.
worldwideThe vertical kilometre clubA thousand metres of climbing without a single break in it.worldwideRoads built as statementsNobody needed to get there. Empire, tourism and the Depression built these anyway.
worldwideThe climbs that never turn backLong climbs that gain their height without ever turning back.worldwideThe sting in the tailClimbs that save the worst of themselves for when you have nothing left.
Arizona · Hawaii · worldwideRoads to the telescopesThe best tarmac in the southwest, built because astronomers needed a mountaintop.United StatesThe mountains America races upOne road, one morning a year, and a clock several thousand feet up.Colorado · Montana · the AlpsWhen the pass opensRoads with a season. The date is set by a plough crew, not a calendar.
CzechiaRozhledny: the towers you ride toCzech hills carry towers. Ride up, climb the steps, look at the next one.
South Moravia, CzechiaThe wine cellars of the Moravian trailsSigned wine routes through vineyard country, and the cellars worth stopping at.
worldwideCafés at the foot of the climbCoffee at the bottom of the climb, and cake at the top.North AmericaThe highest paved roads in North AmericaWhere the tarmac stops climbing, from Mount Blue Sky down.Hauts-de-France, FranceThe pavé of Paris–RoubaixThe worst stones in cycling, in the order the race meets them.Flanders, BelgiumThe cobbled bergs of FlandersShort, steep and paved in granite. The climbs the Ronde is built from.Flanders, BelgiumKoers kaffees of the RondeFlemish bars where the racing is the standing subject, beside the course.EuropeCafés inside cycling's templesCoffee inside the velodrome, the museum, the champion's own centre.Girona · Côte d'Azur · Mallorca · ColoradoThe test climbs of the prosThe climbs professionals use to find out what shape they are in.worldwideHairpin heaven: the most switchbacks on one climbThe climbs that turn back on themselves so often the road becomes a staircase.worldwideThe vertical kilometre clubA thousand metres of climbing without a single break in it.worldwideRoads built as statementsNobody needed to get there. Empire, tourism and the Depression built these anyway.worldwideThe climbs that never turn backLong climbs that gain their height without ever turning back.worldwideThe sting in the tailClimbs that save the worst of themselves for when you have nothing left.Arizona · Hawaii · worldwideRoads to the telescopesThe best tarmac in the southwest, built because astronomers needed a mountaintop.United StatesThe mountains America races upOne road, one morning a year, and a clock several thousand feet up.Colorado · Montana · the AlpsWhen the pass opensRoads with a season. The date is set by a plough crew, not a calendar.CzechiaRozhledny: the towers you ride toCzech hills carry towers. Ride up, climb the steps, look at the next one.South Moravia, CzechiaThe wine cellars of the Moravian trailsSigned wine routes through vineyard country, and the cellars worth stopping at.Regions
CzechiaA castle on every other hill, and a lookout tower on the ones without.DolomitesPale walls, four passes in a morning, and a rifugio at the top of each.FlandersShort granite ramps in the Flemish Ardennes, and a hundred years of the Ronde on them.MallorcaWarm limestone, empty switchbacks, and a coffee stop at the top of every climb.ŁódźFlat roads out of a mill city, into forest and along the Pilica.BerlinPine forest and lake country west of the city, then flat lanes into Brandenburg.GironaThe town the WorldTour lives in, and the cafés its riders own.BristolSouth to the Mendips and Cheddar's limestone, north to the Cotswold edge.Tucson & the Sky IslandsSky Island climbs out of the Sonoran desert, rideable all winter.MunichSouth along the Isar to the lakes, with the Alps at the end of it.AmsterdamPolder, dyke and dune, on roads built for bicycles before anything else.RoubaixFarmland lanes for fifty-one weeks a year, and the hardest race in cycling on the fifty-second.ColoradoWhere pavement in North America runs out of continent to climb.BogotáEvery climb stacked on 2,600 metres, and the cafés the Colombian pros own.French AlpsAlpe d'Huez, the Maurienne, and the passes that decide the Tour every July.LinzWhere the Danube path meets the granite hills of the Mühlviertel.Santa BarbaraSea level to the Santa Ynez crest, by way of Gibraltar Road.MauiHaleakalā: 58.8 km from the beach to the crater rim, without a descent.StelvioForty-eight painted tornanti on the Prato side. Forty of them are real.BeartoothRed Lodge to 3,337 metres, through a glacial headwall of switchbacks.