Pomorska 500

Pomorska 500 is one of the best known bikepacking races in Poland, an unsupported ride through the hills, lakes and forests that the ice sheet left behind in Pomerania some 12,000 years ago. More than 2,000 riders have lined up at its start over the years, and the organisers describe it as a proper test of character on the road into ultra racing.

For 2027 the route is new and runs for the first time from the Baltic resort of Sopot to Szczecin. Earlier editions traced the Pomeranian watershed and the sources of its rivers; this one keeps the glacial landscape as its theme but stops clinging to the watershed line, linking small towns, river valleys and hundreds of kilometres of gravel and forest roads where, in the organisers' words, you hear birdsong more often than engines.

It is run by Polskie Kolarstwo Przygodowe (PoKoP), the team behind Wisła 1200 and Carpatia Divide, led by Leszek Pachulski. Riders can choose an entry option that sends the money otherwise spent on a T-shirt to the Wolne Rzeki foundation for river restoration, and the finish comes with a hot meal and a beer from Browar Amber.