Stories

A thousand kilometres, counted for you

Most December challenges hand you a weekly leaderboard and leave the sum to you. The Windline 1000 counts every ride from 16 December, puts your running total on Strava, and sends a finisher card on 1 January.

Windline

Summary

  • 1,000 km (621 miles), between 16 and 31 December 2026, anywhere in the world. Free to enter.
  • Enter in Windline, connect Strava once, and every bike ride you upload is counted — indoor and virtual included.
  • Each counted ride gets your running total written onto its description, so the number is on the ride itself rather than in a dashboard you have to go and check.
  • Counting starts on 16 December whenever you enter, so arriving late costs you nothing.

The arithmetic nobody wants to do

A December challenge usually works like this. You sign up, you ride, and somewhere in the background a leaderboard updates once a week. Whether you are on track is your problem, and the answer involves opening a spreadsheet or adding up a fortnight of rides in your head on a Tuesday night.

That is the part the Windline 1000 by ProLend removes. The counting is the product. Ride, upload as you already do, and the sum is done for you and put where you will actually see it.

How it works

The target

1,000 km (621 miles), ridden between 00:00 GMT on Wednesday 16 December and 23:59 GMT on Thursday 31 December 2026. Anywhere in the world, on any bike.

Entering

Enter in Windline and connect Strava once. That is the whole setup, and it is free.

What counts

Every bike ride you upload to Strava, including indoor and virtual. Nothing to log twice and nothing to remember.

Late entry

Counting runs from 16 December whoever you are and whenever you join, so entering on the 22nd still counts everything you rode from the start.

Your total, on the ride

Each counted ride has your running total added to the end of its Strava description — “Windline 1000 by ProLend: 640 / 1,000 km”. You find out where you are by looking at the ride you just did.

Finishing

Everyone who reaches 1,000 km gets a Windline 1000 finisher card on 1 January 2027.

Your numbers are yours

Windline only ever shows a rider their own figures. There is no in-product ranking, no table of who is ahead, and nothing of yours shown to anybody else.

For riders who do want the company, the weekly leaderboard lives in the ProLend Strava club, which is opt-in and entirely separate from the counting. Strava is simply where the rides come from.

The sum should arrive without being asked for. Everything beyond that is a choice the rider makes.

Why Windline is running an event at all

Windline forecasts wind for multi-day tours — it reads a route’s bearing, works out when the group reaches each stretch, and reports headwind rather than a compass direction. A December distance challenge is not that.

It is the same instinct pointed at a different problem. A tour forecast exists because the useful answer is the one you do not have to work out yourself, and so does this. In both cases the product is doing the arithmetic that the rider would otherwise be doing badly, at night, from memory.

It also puts Windline in front of riders every day for a fortnight, which is the honest commercial reason and worth saying out loud. ProLend sponsors it and puts its name to it.

Windline on iPhone

Windline is on the iPhone as well as the web. The app carries events, day forecasts with the wind arrows drawn against the road, route import from Strava and Ride with GPS, and the Windline 1000 with your running total on it.

The web app remains the thing riders can open from a group chat with no account and nothing installed, which is still the point. The iPhone app is for the people who want it on a home screen.

Riding through December anyway?

Entry is free and takes one connection.

Enter the Windline 1000

Questions people ask

When does the Windline 1000 by ProLend run?
From 00:00 GMT on Wednesday 16 December to 23:59 GMT on Thursday 31 December 2026. The target is 1,000 km (621 miles) ridden inside that window, anywhere in the world.
Does it cost anything to enter?
No. It is free to enter and Windline is free for riders.
What rides count towards the 1,000 km?
Every bike ride uploaded to Strava during the window, including indoor and virtual rides. Riders connect Strava once at entry and then just ride as normal.
Can I still enter after 16 December?
Yes. Counting always runs from 16 December regardless of when you enter, so a late entrant keeps everything they have already ridden in the window.
How do I know how far I have gone?
Your running total is written onto the end of each counted ride’s Strava description, in the form “Windline 1000 by ProLend: 640 / 1,000 km”. Windline shows you only your own numbers.
What happens when I reach 1,000 km?
Everyone who finishes gets a Windline 1000 finisher card on 1 January 2027.

Every product named here is built and operated by Cross Constellation.

The idea

Ride as you were going to. The counting is somebody else’s job.

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