PeloFondo Ends After 8 Historic Years of Inspiring Events

PeloFondo, the quarterly long-distance cycling event run by SUMMIIT Challenges, will shut down for good on November 15, 2026. Founder and owner Landon Arnold announced the closure in a letter posted to the SUMMIIT Challenges Facebook page, citing two straight years of financial losses that made the company’s free, donation-supported model impossible to sustain.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, PeloFondo is a live virtual event open to both indoor and outdoor cyclists, built around long-distance mileage rather than speed or leaderboard rank. Riders pick their own distance goal, commonly somewhere between 35 and 120 miles, and complete it over a set weekend window, typically from midnight Saturday through 11:59 p.m. Sunday. There has never been a registration fee. SUMMIIT Challenges is not affiliated with Peloton Interactive, but the events became a staple for many riders on Peloton bikes and became known through the broader Peloton community for the way they turned solo indoor mileage into a team-based, goal-driven event. The Clip Out has previously highlighted PeloFondo as one of the ways Peloton members can get more out of their membership by joining community challenges outside the platform itself. Read more here.

Two Years of Losses Preceded the Decision

Arnold wrote that SUMMIIT Challenges set out in 2019 to provide “a first-class, community-centric virtual event experience while keeping these events free for all participants.” For years, donations from participants covered most of the operating costs. That changed. Arnold said the organization has operated at a substantial net loss for the past two years and spent the last 18 months looking for a way to keep going before concluding that continuing PeloFondo and its sister events at scale was no longer sustainable.

SUMMIIT Challenges ran four separate event brands over its lifespan: PeloFondo, STRIDE, CLIMB, and STAGES. Arnold said the combined community logged more than 40,000 athletes, over 5 million miles, and roughly 320,000 hours of effort across 34 events in eight years.

PeloFondo’s Charitable Footprint

Beyond the mileage totals, Arnold pointed to the charitable work built around PeloFondo and the other SUMMIIT events. The organization said it helped fund research into Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and skin, breast, and blood cancers, along with mental health initiatives. It also financed a fresh water well that Arnold said will continue serving 220 members of a community in Africa for the next 30 years, and provided direct financial support to participants facing personal and health crises.

What Happens to Remaining PeloFondo Inventory and the App

SUMMIIT Challenges laid out a timeline for winding down. Remaining PeloFondo medal inventory is available at a discount through November 1, when the online store will close. The SUMMIIT app will stay available through the end of November before it is removed from app stores, at which point Arnold said all historical data will be deleted from company servers. Riders who want to preserve records of past PeloFondo results have roughly two and a half months to do so.

Arnold’s letter closed with a request for stories from the community, asking participants to share standout memories from rides, runs, or friendships formed through PeloFondo and the other SUMMIIT events. As of this report, the Facebook announcement had drawn more than 200 reactions and 80 comments from riders reflecting on their own history with the events.

The closure ends one of the more recognizable independent event series in the at-home fitness space, one built specifically around the kind of self-directed, goal-based riding that many Peloton members used to structure their own training outside the platform’s official programming.

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