trek travel girona spain

Girona Gravel Climbs with Trek Travel

This was the 4th day in a 5-day trip we took with Trek Travel - an award-winning cycling vacation company which has fabulous bike trips on five continents. Details on the entire 5-day Girona Gravel Bike Tour can be found on their website, and you can find a few more pics and videos from the trip on the saved highlight stories of our Insta account. For info on ALL of their gravel-specific trips, click here . If you are interested in booking a trip with them, use our promo code GBAGRAVEL for $200 off your Trek Travel trip.

There is great terrain variety on this route! You start on cobbles in the streets of Girona, then use wide, smooth dirt bike paths getting out of town, and continue on nice farm roads for the first 15 miles. After that, you get slightly more rugged and narrow roads through the nature preserve. The Hincapié climb (miles 16.5-23) is paved. The Els Angles climb alternates between chunky dirt and pavement, and the final big climb and descent (around miles 38-43) is quite technical with loose shale and larger rocks to negotiate. Other than the first and last sections in Girona city, car traffic was extremely light to non-existent. The first "warm-up" dirt climb of the day is through a beautiful nature preserve. In this section we saw zero cars and had the time to notice the cork trees that are common in this area. The south side of the (paved) Hincapié climb was a blast to climb and especially fun to descend! It had beautiful smooth pavement and wound in a way that kept you on your toes but was fun to flick the bike though at high speeds. We spotted several pro cyclists climbing up which, we are told, is a pretty common occurrence. The Els Angles climb (also the south side) alternated dirt and pavement, dirt and pavement, which was really nice since it had some very steep sections and was about 8 miles in length. When you reach the peak (at an altitude of almost 1,650 ft), you are rewarded with a small park, Santuari dels Angels, the famous chapel where Salvador Dalí was married, and (on a clear day) incredible views of Girona, the Pla de Girona plains, the Costa Brava, the Pyrenees and Montseny mountain range. Santuari dels Angels is also a cafe, and you can get a great espresso coffee drink to enjoy on an outdoor patio before continuing your ride. (There are also bathrooms available to use here.) If you like the challenge of more technical gravel, you'll enjoy the final climb and descent. By the time you complete this, you will feel that your post-ride beer is well deserved! We particularly liked the way this route brings you back into town by Girona's Gothic cathedral (also known as the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Girona). It is iconic and stunning. (HBO  filmed outdoor scenes for season 6 of its fantasy television series Game of Thrones at the cathedral and its steps!)

Pig and cattle farming is large in Girona and its surrounding areas. While biking through their farmland was beautiful, it was also quite stinky. 🐷 The final descent that happens around mile 40 was steep and technical making it a bit jarring on the upper body and fatiguing for the hands. We did this in early October, and even then, temperatures were quite warm (80º).

Do this ride in the Spring or Fall if you are lucky enough to be in the town of Girona and are up for a great challenge of climbing on mixed terrain. (Join Trek Travel if you want a guided and supported version of this plus 4 more days of amazing biking!)

Other Notes:

We started this ride from Hotel Nord 1901 . (We highly recommend this hotel. Not only is it affordable, but it is comfortable and very bike-friendly !) Plan this ride for Spring or Fall when temperatures are cooler and milder, or plan to start very early to avoid the mid-day heat. Make sure to take adequate hydration and nutrition with you. Trek Travel provided us with great gravel-specific bikes- the Checkpoint SLR 7. This bike was perfect for this mixed-terrain route because it is the lightest gravel bike in their lineup and is designed to take on the gnarliest of gravel terrain, plus it's super-fast off-pavement. It’s built with a light carbon frame, generous 45mm tire clearance, has Shimano GRX 2X 11-speed Di2 components, internal frame storage, and Shimano hydraulic disc brakes for predictable and safe stopping. The 45mm tires were a dream for rolling right over all the chunky stuff! Luckily, you can rent gravel bikes from the Trek Store in Girona whether or not you are on one of their trips. The coffee scene in the town of Girona is incredible, and some of the best coffee we had while there for 6 days was at Oniria Cafe , which is located right at the start/finish and directly beside the hotel. You also have a plethora of cycling-themed cafes to choose from for a post-ride meal or drinks. We had two favorites:  Hors Catégorie - This is located a very short distance from the route start/finish. The restaurant is named after the French term for a cycle climb so steep it can't be categorized and the whole place exudes all things cycling. You can actually cycle straight into the restaurant and take your bike up to their indoor bike storage loft. Signed jerseys and photos from races are displayed, the TV is almost always showing a bike race and fancy vintage bicycles adorn the walls. They have great food, specialty coffee, craft beer, and cold press juices. The menu includes meat but it is extremely veggie and vegan-friendly, and many items can be modified to be gluten-free. (They had the BEST digital menu that allows you to filter menu items by all sorts of allergens and food sensitivities!) La Fabrica -  This is about a 2-3 min bike ride away from the start/finish but very much worth the trip. La Fabrica was the first specialty coffee shop in Girona. It was created by Christian Meier, a professional cyclist, and his wife Amber. They brought together a love for hospitality and healthy food, mixed with a history of cycling and coffee. Beans are sourced and freshly roasted in-house and paired with a menu inspired by travels around the world. The food is quite possibly some of the most delicious, colorful, and beautiful food you will find in Girona. Check out their Instagram account to ogle what they have to offer!

Route Contributor

Laura Karpinski and Rose Barcklow are the creators of Gravel Bike Adventures. Click on the About page to learn more about them.

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The Cycling Routes of Girona

12 Minute Read

Girona is a Cycling Mecca

The other day, someone over in the FatCakeClub , a local riding group here in San Francisco, asked around about some recommendations for Girona, Spain . Apparently this person is currently out there for some travel and wanted to know a bit more about the town.

I got so excited! Despite not having been there more than just once back in 2018, I’ve been borderline obsessed with the town since. Especially during this past year as everything has been shut down across the globe. It’s where most professional cyclists call home.

I realized then that with all the information I put in my reply to them, that perhaps I should also put together post about it here. So voila!

Girona Ride Camp

In 2018, I went on my second bike travel trip through Trek Travel. The previous year I had done a similar trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca , where I rented a bike and stayed out in the countryside. This year, I opted to travel with my bike and bring my own to use in Girona. It was so worth it, and it was so awesome. And this was despite it raining basically every day that we were out there!

It was what Trek calls a “ ride camp ”, which is marketed to those of us who want to take a bit more direct control over our trip and ride in a bit more flexible, but often more adventurous, fashion. We were given GPX routes ahead of time through RideWithGPS, with some days being swapped at the ride leaders’ discretion, and each day typically with an option of a longer or a shorter ride.

First of all, some tech notes

If you’re more savvy with tech, or already know what GPX files are and how to use them on your bike computer, feel free to read ahead.

A GPX file is essentially a file that you can create that represents a route in real life. It’s basically an XML file if you’re familiar with it. It stores points of interest, directions (sometimes turn-by-turn), and GPS coordinates. Services like Strava and RideWithGPS will let you draw on a map to create these files, then share them with your friends and push them to your bike computer.

Then, when you go out to ride, you can simply queue up a route, press start, and follow the directions! Just like if you had put in something similar to Google Maps when driving somewhere, except this one is a bit more customized.

The specifics on how to do this are a bit more detailed, and perhaps I’ll write up a separate post on the subject, but for now, check out road.cc for some tips on how to get started. It will be different depending on if you sync your device with certain cloud services or if you simply download a GPX (or .FIT) file, and will be different depending on what destination device you use, but we’ll come back that.

The point is, you can visit any of the Strava links in this post and create one of these GPX files for your own personal use!

My Recommended Rides

This post will likely be one of a few around the topic of riding your bike in Girona, so make sure to come back to check out anything else I put up later!

But I wanted to start off with putting some details that you, the hopeful transcontinental cyclist, can use to most fully enjoy your time cycling in Girona, if you happen to go visit.

Note that all of these rides started and ended at the Hotel Ciutat near the Barri Vell district of Girona’s old town.

Canet d’Adri Loop

This was our first day, and so it was a bit of a warm up social ride. We were all getting to know each other a bit, our riding styles, where we all came from, that sort of thing. By traveling with an American company like Trek, you tend to find others in your group from similar walks of life as your own, and they all seem to be travel-conscious and health-conscious Americans. We later exchanged names and contact information, later setting up a Google Photos album that I still refer back to this day.

The loop was only about 17-18 miles, but it’s a good starting loop to get familiar with the area a bit, get a sense for how the roads are once you get outside of town, and is easy enough to follow that you don’t even really need a tour guide with you to feel comfortable.

When you’re out there, look for the Spanish cork trees , as they’re protected federally. This region is where 80% of the world’s cork comes from!

It’s amazing at how quickly you can get out of town and suddenly be surrounded by quiet, nearly empty roads in what feels like a quintessential Spanish countryside. This ride is a great introduction to what kind of riding Girona has to offer you.

Strava Link - Canet d’Adri Loop

Costa Brava Loop

Second day out for us was a big one! About 80 miles, or about 130km, as we headed out towards the coast and back around through Calogne and the back side of Els Àngels. I remember feeling pretty energized, while still being worried about the cold. For some reason, there was a massive cold snap the week we were there, so in addition to it being wet out, it was also cold! Luckily not cold enough to be worried about snow or ice, but something that me, being a California kid, definitely had to bundle up for!

Note that this ride can be shortened if you opt to cut back through Santa Cristina d’Aro , Romanyà de la Selva , and Cassà de la Selva , which trims the distance down from 80 miles to about 61 miles.

If you opt for the full distance, it’ll be worth it, I promise. This was the only time this trip that I got to ride along the cliffs next to the ocean, and it’s spectacular. The roads are perfect, they wind around beautifully, and it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

A favorite climb of the region is Els Àngels , the last major one of the day, and this was our first exposure to it. You ride up to the Santuari des Àngels, and the view from the top is great, as you get to look out over the whole valley northward. There’s a small cafe and restaurant at the top that apparently has ice cream in the summer! It wasn’t open when we were there.

Coming from Madremanya is considered the “back side” of the climb, by the way, and is a bit shorter and a bit steeper by comparison to the side coming directly from Girona. It’s a perfect road for cyclists, as the gradient is pretty steady, the roads are perfect, and there’s little to no traffic.

I keep saying that, huh? The roads are perfect. They really are!

Once you head down the other side, you’ll be back in Girona in no time!

Strava Link - Costa Brava Loop, returning through Calogne and Els Àngels

This is the premier climb to do here in Girona! It has basically everything as far as training climbs go. It’s a beautiful ascent, with views out to the Pyrenees that will literally take your breath away on the way down. The views from the top are fantastic, too, just don’t go past the radio tower gates as they’re government property. Make sure to take a picture of two from the gliderport at the top, too, as you’ll see it run out to quite the drop off a few meters down from you.

To get out there, head north out of town and make your way out towards Lake Banyoles, where the rowing event of the 1992 Olympics (held in Barcelona) was held. I remember most of the riding to get out there followed through a few quiet roads surrounded by what looked like corn fields. There is a small cafe just across from the southern portion of the lake with some tennis courts where I got a cortado (they’re the best out there in Spain) for some ridiculous price like €1.10. Definitely check it out before heading up to Rocacorba.

Overall, the climb is difficult, but not too difficult. It’s what makes this a favorite among the locals! It used to be a dirt road for a long time until it was paved a few years back. Funny thing, though, is that this didn’t make for any more traffic out there - the road basically doesn’t go anywhere, so there’s no real reason for anyone to be out there. Which means it’s perfect for cycling.

A good rule of thumb, according to locals , is to aim for a time that is your age plus ten minutes. I guess I didn’t quite make that one, as I pulled in at a respectable 56 minutes ( official strava segment here ), but I did learn that day that my friend running a different gearing arrangement than me was able to spin more efficiently given our similar FTP levels at the time.

It’s a fascinating climb generally, one that isn’t anything like what you’ll experience in the Alps, and isn’t even the most scenic climb around. But there’s definitely an allure to it, as the road has pitches >10% in many spots, and even has a few flatter / false flat sections that really force you to stay engaged if going for a good time. You’ll regularly see professionals on this one, going for a sub 30 minute (!) time.

Unfortunately, and perhaps fortunately, my derailleur hanger broke off completely near the bottom of the climb, leaving my derailleur hanging off of my bike. It’s when I learned about what a derailleur hanger was , and that it is designed to break when stressed so as to avoid your derailleur causing your frame to break instead.

Had this broken at some point during more serious power output on the way up, or even while coasting at a high speed on the way down, the derailleur could have been thrown into the spokes of the wheel and really caused some physical harm, both to my bike and to me. Definitely consider myself lucky there, for sure.

Luckily I was nearby one of the SAG vans we had with us for the day, and so I got a ride all the way back to the hotel we were staying at in Girona while the group pressed on into Olot . It made for an 80+ mile day for them, which gave me enough time to wander through Girona in search for a replacement derailleur hanger for my Giant TCR. I found one before dinner and was lucky enough to continue onward with the trip.

Strava Link - Rocacorba Climb

Sant Hilari de Sacalm

After Rocacorba, we had a rest day, so I ended up wandering around the city of Girona on foot. It is an incredible place, and you should absolutely take some time to wander the old walls, see the cathedral, and even check out all the Game of Thrones shooting locations there.

Our next ride was perhaps one of my favorites. It heads out towards Sant Hilari de Sacalm, a small town known for having a lot of fountains, and then later through a region known for growing Christmas fir trees.

To get there, you follow the river up through a beautiful gorge that looks like something out of a Disney movie. I remember trying to keep pace with the lead group, one of whom was a former cat-1 racer, losing them at some point, picking up one other, and then trying to chase them back down as we rolled up into town. It was enthralling, heart bursting fun.

While we didn’t explore a lot of the other side roads away from this main path, it seems that there are many more to explore, including a steep climb up to the Susqueda dam that supplies a lot of the water to the region’s many streams and rivers. It’s steep, and the roads may not be in the best of shape, but it’s on my list to go back to at some point.

You can opt to do another loop out past the town, too, out through Sant Sadurni d’Osormort , which is absolutely worthwhile! The views out north over some white-faced cliffs in the distance are amazing, and when I was there, no one was out at all, so us cyclists had the entire road to ourselves.

Once back into Sant Hilari, we headed back into Girona via Santa Coloma de Farners , closing out the first loop and passing through some beautiful farmland (which was finally starting to dry out for us). Look out for the bridge far above you carrying the C-25 freeway!

The whole loop ends up making for a big day on the bike, but this area just west of the city of Girona is definitely worth the effort in my opinion!

Strava Link - Sant Hilari de Sacalm

Els Àngels and the Hincapie Climb

This was our last day for our Trek Travel Cycling Camp in Girona, and it was another fun one. We headed east out of town to first do the Els Àngels climb from the Girona side, went out towards the coast again, and went up the Santa Pellaia climb. That last climb is more formally known as the “Hincapie” climb, as it’s one that George Hincapie was very regularly using for training during his years as a professional cyclist.

For whatever reason that day, I felt really good just before the Hincapie climb, so my buddy Kendrick actually gave me a lead out and I did my best to rip up that climb as fast as I could. It felt great. Nothing very steep at all really, which is what made the climb quite interesting to me. It basically means you can go as hard as you’d like, especially since there was (surprise, surprise) basically zero traffic and smooth tarmac.

I think I walked away that day understanding a bit more about myself and my relationship with climbing that I’ve since expanded upon. It makes me happy to think back on the day and the whole trip, really.

Strava Link - Els Àngels and the Hincapie Climb

Go to Girona if you can. If you’re a cyclist, go to Girona. Hell, if you’re not a cyclist, it’s still a great spot on this big blue orb we’re spinning around space on. It’s a town with both sleepy aspects and larger ones that resemble its big brother, Barcelona, and it has great food, wine, activity, night life, all of it.

I definitely plan to continue writing more about Girona as time goes on. And perhaps one day I’ll find myself back there again. Perhaps, even, as a local.

Until next time, adéu!

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Podcast: Trek Travel Girona Gravel Tour – Plentiful & Diverse Gravel

Our partner in podcasting, The Gravel Ride Podcast recounts a recent trip to Girona, Spain with Trek Travel. Our knowledgeable guides took us on a five day adventure throughout the region exposing us to Girona’s plentiful and diverse gravel. As a bonus, we were able to connect with a number of local cycling brands contributing to Girona’s reputation as the hub of European cycling.

Trek Travel Website

Automatic Transcription by The Gravel Ride (please excuse all errors)

[00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport

I’m your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don’t need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist.

This week on the show, I’m releasing some recordings I did during the tractor on a gravel tour. I participated in, in November. It was a great trip. I encourage you to check it out on Trek’s website and I appreciate Trek’s support in getting the over there to have this wonderful experience.

With my friend. Was able to sit down with our guides as well as some other members of the Jarana cycling community. To give you a flavor for this wonderful cycling city. I hope you enjoy and let’s dive right in

[00:00:56] Craig Dalton: Right here we are, day one, Trek Gerona Gravel tour here in Gerona, Spain here in the hotel. Nord got set up on my Trek demo bike. Not the one you’d expect for these gravel trips, but it turns out the gravel roads here in Gerona are pretty smooth and you don’t need the big wide tires that I typically ride at home.

So we’re riding a 35 C Pirelli tire on these Damani bikes. The great thing was, Sent them over. My fit measurements had everything dialed, so it was just some quick adjustments Right before the ride. Today we did about 25 miles today as a shakeout ride. Riding along, essentially along the river, out and back on either side of the river, which a lot of fun.

We got into some single track. Super smooth. Not a lot of elevation today. That’s gonna come tomorrow where I’m excited that we’re riding off to the Mediterranean. So great first day. Great intro. The guides. Rafa and Mickey are awesome. Mickey’s a local here in Jerron and Rafa’s from London. Bringing a little bit of international flavor to the trip.

We’ve got a group of about six of us, so it’s pretty easy to keep people together. I’ve got two friends from San Francisco along for the ride, so that is a joy and a pleasure. More later in the week, and I’ll get some commentary, a little bit more specifics about the writing from Mickey Rafa along the way to to give you an idea about what to expect.

It’s a five day experience here in the Jonah Gravel tour. They’ve got some other options I think, coming online next year, but super excited for the days to come as the mileage is gonna creep up, and I’m told the technicality is gonna creep up as well. So super excited for that. We’ll see how these 35 C tires on the demos go, but I’m confident we’ve got the right equipment for the job.

[00:02:50] Craig Dalton: Okay, so on day two of the Trek Gerona gravel tour today, we did about 60 miles of gravel, about 1800 feet of climbing on our way to the Mediterranean beach, the Mediterranean Ocean. We started in Gerona and followed the prominent river all the way to the east. Surprisingly, the whole ride, we were on gravel roads, beautiful gravel.

Started out getting outta town on some small paths right next to the river. Some real fun single track to wake you up and then onto some amazing roads through forests. There’s a lot of forests here. We were told that the trees that were being planted there were for the paper industry. They were super beautiful tall trees and lined in rows, and we just weaved throughout them until 29 kilometers later.

We met the van, the Trek travel van, and our second guide Mickey, who had water refills and food and everything we needed for the second half of our ride out there to the coast where we went through orchards, basically this incredibly smooth gravel road. Very, very little car traffic. I think maybe we saw a few, maybe three vehicles out there the whole day, but super pleasant ride.

Relatively flat for 60 miles, only 1800 feet of climbing. We got to the ocean to meet Mickey in the van again. Had an amazing lunch and a few of us decided we were gonna jump into the. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it wasn’t unpleasant. It was so fun to kind of get off the gravel bike in the middle of your ride and go for a swim and play around.

And one of the riders, James, my friend from San Francisco, took a nap on the beach while we were in the water and we had to rouse him to get him back on the bike for our 45 kilometer return home. Adding up to, as I said, 60 miles and no idea why I’m converting miles to kilometers and vice versa.

Including them in the same sentences. But anyway, I’m a bit groggy from the ride. The legs are taken a little bit to get used to it, but it’s been amazing. The town’s been amazing. We, we spent sunset at, on the wall here in Jerome, next to the big church, and you can see the purities and the sun was setting right over the pys.

Pretty incredible Second day. Getting ready for the third day, which I guess is a little bit more technical. I’ll get some of the guides on to describe some of the terrain, excuse me, that we’re going through and we’ll see how the legs hold up.

[00:05:29] Craig Dalton: Day three of our Jer gravel cycling tour with track travel. Today was a little bit more technical, especially with the 35 Sea Tires. We got out into some rolling farm roads and definitely off into some single track and double track. That was pretty amazing, the first 30 K or so, rolling farm roads.

Just a little bit punchier than we’ve been experiencing. A little bit looser gravel in most cases. But nothing too technical on the. 30 K of the ride. We had this amazing stop at Ro Roca corba cycling, a new 17th century Chateau kind of building that’s being converted into a cycling. Kind of lodge and Airbnb pretty amazing.

They took the kind of areas that used to house the cattle underneath the building and made them into kind of the bike room and a little cafe. It’s a super like rustic arc, arc ceilings beautiful stonework on the grounds. This beautiful old building, it’s being renovated by a couple professional cyclists, ones who’s already retired, and one who’s in the Women’s Pro tour today.

So that was really special. Kind of get to tour that facility and definitely something. It’s about 30 kilometers outside of. Jer. So kind of an interesting place to stay. You know, the ideal might be stay in Gerona for, you know, four or five days and then go out there for three or four days, or two or three days to just get a little bit of different starting point.

It’s a little closer to closer to some of the climbs particularly for the roadies. So, you know, if you’re interested in getting out and hitting some of those climbs and having a little less distance in your legs from Gerona, that’s a good option. Once we left there, the riding got a little bit more technical through some farms.

Took a lot of single track. Some punchier climbs actually reminds me of what I recently experienced at, at big sugar in Arkansas. Kind of loose gravel, the sense definitely some loose gravel pushed the technical capabilities. Clearly. Track is the, has done a really good job of making roots that are gonna explore different areas of your gravel cycling ability again today.

Was definitely on the more technical side, particularly if you were a newer rider of which we had at least one in today’s ride. And you know, you could. Some of them were, some of the dissents were definitely making them think, but everybody went through fabulously. We even got to stop at the property, which my one of the guides fathers owned, and I’ll get him on to talk about that a little bit.

But it was great being able to reminisce with him and he learned to swim up there. His father owned a restaurants, a typical Catalan food restaurant in this really beautiful building, which was kind of cool to see. Then we rolled back into, I’m always looking at the GPS and amazed that, you know, we could be within seven kilometers of Jerome and still in these amazing forests and woods, riding gravel, basically all the way back into town.

So another great day out there. It’s interesting how they’ve explored. The first day was kind of getting to know your bike a little bit. Second day was that long. Ride out to the beach. Not very technical. Beautiful, beautiful gravel roads today being more technical, and we’ll see what the next two days have to bring us.

[00:08:46] Craig Dalton: All right. Day four, Gerona gravel. Definitely woke up feeling a little tired, not gonna lie. Fourth day riding in a row with some big climbs. Yesterday. Got a massage yesterday afternoon, which was awesome and quite affordable here in Gerona, which was a bonus. Got up this morning, got the bikes ready. We got the route loaded up.

We were riding through the fields. Kesier de Las Selva known for the cork. It’s cork production. So they actually, it was kind of interesting. They, the trees kind of about five feet kind of from the ground up. Five feet they chop and that’s the cork that they used to make cork bottles, flooring, everything.

So that was super cool to see. We continued rolling through some dirt roads through there, through the mountain range of Lis gravis. Then we tackled a famous road climb called Santa Aea, known as the George hie Climb for Local. This was awesome. I mean, I know we’re here to talk about gravel and the gravel was great that first half of the morning, but that road climb was spectacular as well.

I kind of felt like it was a bonus, obviously, like we signed up for a gravel trip, but to be able to do kind of a famous climb, road climb was amazing. It was great gradient, fantastic descent. Right at the bottom of it, we turned up another dirt road and had a a 12 K climb to lunch. Great climb kind of loose.

Actually more similar to riding I do at home than the first couple of days. So that was interesting. Got up to a church where Salvador Dolly was married, had some lunch, then we dropped down the kind of backside of that climb. But before we got to the bottom in Jer, we took another hard right and got into a trail system right above.

Rode some steep descents through and down back into town. Those steep descents were very much like mount ta. You know, maybe 12, 15% grade going down and loose. A lot of fun. I discovered by the time I got back to town that I managed to cut the sidewall of my. But fortunately the sealant held and it was all good for me to roll back into town.

We dropped a few people off and ended up going on an extended loop, a pretty vicious climb on the extended loop they call extended loops for the avid riders. My legs were screaming at me, but it was a, it was a lot of fun. We were kind of just, again, in that same area going up into the ELs Angels climb area.

Steep dirt climbs pretty loose. We grinded that climb for a while, but the descent was a hell of a lot of fun. Pretty gentle loose rock, but pretty easy to handle at speed. Fun. Coming back into the town the way that route did was a lot of fun. It really felt like you were kind of entering a village, not downtown gerona like we’ve done in some other, the the entrances back into town.

Anyway, another great day out there for day four. Super fun, super varied. The team has done a really good job of kind of making each day feel different and like many areas around the world, kind of directionally where you head outta town, the, the dirt and the gravel. Has just a different feel to it. So it’s been fun to explore.

We’ve got one more day on the official tour, and then I’ve got an extra day here. So we’re gonna do a sixth day of riding where I think we’ll head back out to the Mediterranean Ocean. Cuz how, how cool is that?

[00:12:17] Craig Dalton: All right. Day five of the Jarana. The gravel tour with truck travel, bit of a shorter day, as most of the clients were leaving today, it’s the end of the official tour. So our guides took us on a really fun kind of single tracky tour through a different part of the surrounding area that we hadn’t visited before.

Lots of fun. Just kind of a great community day where we got to interact with the other riders a bit, and the writing wasn’t too challenging nor too long as the ideal schedule had you back by noon and getting checked out of the hotel. Fortunately, we don’t have to leave today. So we decided at least a few of us who were staying on a couple extra days to go out and climb the LA angels.

Road climb again. We had such a good time. The day before on that climb, we thought it’d be fun to go back up. And we had some energy in our legs and a little bit of time in the afternoon to go tackle that. So we said goodbye to the other members of our tour group and our guides and headed off on a road loop.

It was great. We talked about the climb a bit the other day. Just a fun group. Growed climb we saw a bunch of pros climbing up at which was always fun got to the top crews back down and put another day behind us in the books

Day 6 and 7

[00:13:31] Craig Dalton: All right. Well, the official tour from track is over at day five. We had a couple extra days on our hands over in Gerona and you better believe we wanted to go out there and ride Mickey. One of our guides that you’ll hear from later in this broadcast was nice enough to share.

Another route. Out to the coast for us. So we really enjoyed that ride out to the coast, just super satisfying to kind of hit the Mediterranean. I shouldn’t come back. Over to Gerona, but he had us go over some great trails on the way out and then a really, really fun road climb. Just gradual great fun descent down into the Mediterranean. You got to the top and you could see the ocean just super satisfying.

We sat around in a cafe for gosh. Probably an hour and a half, just drinking some teas and coffees and having some snacks. We were having a great time, but we realized we needed to head back to Gerona. And Mickey’s rude had us go through some similar type of terrain that we were on in our coastal roots, a few days back, those nice long flat undulating gravel trails that seemed to be pervasive in this area. So we’re super appreciative of Mickey.

Sharing one of his favorite routes that he loves to do with his friends, with us. So we could get another big day. You know, on the bike. I’ll move on to day seven. As I’m recording this after the fact day seven, we didn’t have a bunch of time left. So we decided we were going to basically revisit the route from day one, some of that nice single track and double track along by the river, it was actually fun without the group with just two of us remaining on the bikes, the kind of rip the single track a little bit harder.

We were comfortable with the bikes. We’d been on them for seven days at that point. So really fun to just kind of rip the single track and nail it a little bit harder. Knowing that we could go as hard as we wanted because we had an overnight in Barcelona and then we were going to be on a plane saying a sad goodbye to Gerona.

Overall. It was a fantastic trip. Jarana is a very special community. There’s a reason why so many cyclists flock there it’s clear whether you’re a gravel cyclist road cyclist, or even mountain biker that there’s ample terrain every direction outside of Jarana. And then the town itself is just really special, special.

Between the old world, the old town roads and the city. City walls, the church walls. It was just a really great experience. Our guides from track were phenomenal and I wanted to introduce you to them. So I’ve recorded some tracks. That’ll play immediately after this commentary. So you can get to know Mickey and Rafa, who were our guides throughout the week for track travel.

I also was able to capture a little bit of audio from a few different sources. We talked a little bit about Roca Corp, but cycling. Both the 17th century Villa that’s being converted into a cycling Airbnb, as well as there’s Roca, Corbus cycling clothing, which was founded by a gentleman by the name of a test who’s happening to be opening his store this month in Jarana. So it was able to get him on the mic. I had Andrew from the Airbnb.

Cycling house. And then also Oscar from Castelli Castelli just opened up a flagship community store in Gerona that week we were there as well. We witnessed a number of group rides going out from the facility. So it was great to hear what Castelli’s perspective was for opening that facility. And I was surprised to learn it had.

Had little to do with selling. Jerseys and clothing and bib shorts, as you would imagine, and everything to do with promoting the cycling community and creating yet another hub. In Jarana for cyclists. Which brings us back to why you should all go to Jarana. As i just mentioned it’s a great place to go and i highly recommend it and i hope you enjoyed this overview of my experience there.

With that said let’s jump right into those conversations

Rapha – Trek Travel Guide

[00:17:33] Craig Dalton: Okay, can I get your name and what you do with Trek?

[00:17:36] Rapha: My name is Rafael and I’m a second

[00:17:38] Craig Dalton: guide for Trek Travel. And

[00:17:40] Rapha: where are you from? Well that’s a good question cuz originally from the Philippines grew up for most of my life, 20 years in London and now anywhere in Europe. So I’m a resident of France, but I gotta find a place to live , so.

[00:17:54] Craig Dalton: And how long have you been guiding for

[00:17:56] Rapha: travel? This will be my fifth year now, guiding for truck.

[00:17:59] Craig Dalton: And what does that look like? Are you always based here in Jer or are you all over the place? We, we

[00:18:03] Rapha: sort of congregate here in the beginning of the year and then come back at the end of the year, but in between, we’re all over

[00:18:09] Craig Dalton: Europe.

And are you leading, I know Trek Travel has got many, many road tours. Probably a lesser degree of gravel tours. Are you leading trips on the road and gravel

[00:18:21] Rapha: for now? Yeah, and we’re, we’re starting off gravel next year and so it’s a mainly road for the beginning. Next year we’re gonna bring in unpaved which is gonna be a whole gravel series.

So we have a whole unit of bikes just traveling throughout Europe, and it’s gonna be exciting for next year. Yeah,

[00:18:37] Craig Dalton: it’s exciting. I heard, I heard from the, the extended team that you’re gonna really build out the gravel experiences for next year, which is great. I think if my experience in Jerome with the gravel tour is any indication there’s gonna be a lot of magical trips across Europe, helping riders discover gravel all over the.

[00:18:56] Rapha: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I do a lot of the road tours and I’ll see just a patch of undiscovered area and I’m thinking, Hey, where does that go? Or I’ll be traveling along the hills and in between you’re gonna see these gravel patches of fires and you just want to go and explore. And essentially that’s what the guides that went into design these trips or, or want to do, they want to do that.

They want to find out those roads. Where does it lead to? Can I connect these dots and see the town and where am I gonna.

[00:19:25] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I think it’s one of the things I’ve talked about on the podcast a lot, just the power of local knowledge as we’re following the GPX files or following you guys’ guides through Jer here.

You know, there’s a lot of nuance, a lot of little trails that you can pop onto that would be easy to miss if you just sort of saw a heat map of the area. You might just choose the carriage way instead of the the nice trails. So it’s really cool and important. I. To have guides that are local to kind of pick apart the best of the best for us to ride on.

[00:19:57] Rapha: Yeah, I mean this is what we do. We, this is what we do for fun. So on our time off whilst we do a lot of road riding for work on our time off, we want to go out there and ride gravel. And so this is why we get to know the places. We live around here and in the places that we research gravel all we’re doing is just riding and riding and riding and then through.

Time, just knowledge. You build up tracks in your head and you wanna put that onto design and then maybe create a trip around it. Find a hotel, find a restaurant, the best restaurants, best hotels to stay and yeah, it’s awesome.

[00:20:30] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I feel that way. Whenever anybody comes to Marin County, I just wanna show them the best of the best and not the most obvious trails, but the, the ones only the locals know.

[00:20:41] Rapha: You, you wanna share it? I mean, it’s, its more fun riding a gravel. It’s more fun with people, friends and random people that you meet up on

[00:20:48] Craig Dalton: trails as well. Yeah. When we were, when we first arrived during the week and you were giving an overview, you were talking about kind of the progression of roots that we’d be doing during the week.

I thought it was very interesting, like the thoughtfulness in, in how you guys conceived of the roots and the, the relative challenges, whether they be distance or technic. Can you talk about, you know, if someone’s come coming into one of the spring trips for the Trek Travel Corona gravel tour, what would how would you describe it?

[00:21:16] Rapha: Well, so, well, there was no brief in the beginning, so actually when we rode this, For the research we rode 500 kilometers in five days and it looked like a picture of a lung with all the trees of just dead ends. But once we put it all together, we decided to, okay. Day one is a bit of an introduction.

Let’s get you used to the surfaces, the mixed surfaces, but we’re gonna keep it flat. And on the second day we’re gonna add on a little bit of distance just to make sure you have endurance for grab, because it’s a lot of work. You know, you’re doing a lot of cadence. Mind work as well, trying to figure out what’s coming up.

And then day three we add technicality. Now we’re having multi services, soft sand, big rocks, technical climbs, and technical descents, which, you know, your wheels dig in, you gotta react to it. And then we put all of that together for the fourth day where you. Pick up all the skills you’ve had and we put it all in a fourth day for you to enjoy.

Yeah. Right

[00:22:11] Craig Dalton: on. And can you talk about the bikes that people are offered for this

[00:22:15] Rapha: trip? Okay. For this trip, we are currently running Damani 2019 s SL seven. So it has gravel wheels on it for 35 millimeter. And it’s just fun. That’s what it is. So it’s, it’s not an all out gravel. It tests your limits on this ride and you get electronic shifting.

So when you really need that gear on those technical climbs, you’re gonna get it. Of course you’re gonna prepare for it, but you’re gonna get, get the gears. Yeah. When

[00:22:39] Craig Dalton: I first saw that, that was the bike spec, I mean, it almost immediately had me thinking of more the trails that we took out to the coast when the carriageway, the, the, you know, the reclaimed rail line.

Right. But at the end of the day, like now, four days into this, You’re pushing the limits of these bikes and it’s been a hell of a lot of fun. I mean, it, I really do think it’s one of, it is kind of a perfect bike for this situation because it did everything you needed to do if you were ever on the road, it felt snappy and lively and it could withstand some of the abuse we were putting it through today.

[00:23:11] Rapha: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, these, these can do rock gardens and slick rock on, on good terrain. Good. These bikes are perfect around your owner. Of course, you know, you can always go wider. You can get flat bars and you go, world is your oyster. When it comes to gravel. I mean, you ask anybody what is gravel to you and they’ll give you a million answers depending on who you’re talking to.

So every, everyone’s got their preferences, and next year, you know, who knows? We have Wider checkpoints next year and it’s it’s gonna cater up to 50 mil tires and it’s gonna be amazing. So we have sneak preview, we have a few in the warehouse at the moment in, and we can’t wait for next

[00:23:48] Craig Dalton: year at a checkpoint.

Yeah, I think it, I mean, the checkpoint’s obviously like gonna be a little bit more versatile and you can imagine the opportunity if you have a rider on day one that’s seeming a little nervous. Maybe you spec it with a 40 to begin with and maybe you swap out the wheels and maybe you put him or her on 50 millimeters just to give them additional comfort.

And who knows, maybe it’s even for day four, we put you on 50 millimeters cuz we know it’s gonna be kind of more challenging, technically speaking.

[00:24:17] Rapha: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. We’re gonna, as guides, you know, we’re gonna test write these. We have a few in now and we’re gonna have fun and check it out. So to checkpoint with all this capabil.

It’s gonna be more forgiving and hopefully you’ll get more people coming in and not be so scared about gravel and check it out and try, try something different from

[00:24:37] Craig Dalton: road riding. Yeah, for sure. As someone who didn’t grow up in gerona, what have been some of your favorite things that you’ve discovered in town?

[00:24:43] Rapha: Oh, you know what? Last night was probably one of the best nights ever because it was random. Mickey invited me down to the cast Telluride, and we did a Night Gravel, which is absolutely epic. Like, it’s add just a different layer of difficulty, not seeing too far around and the group dynamic and you know, getting to know people and.

Absolute blast.

[00:25:04] Craig Dalton: Yeah, we were more than a little jealous that we didn’t have lights with us and our legs were probably cooked enough that we shouldn’t go for another eye, but we probably would’ve been excited to do so. Craig, maybe next time we’re gonna invite you around. Exactly. Outside of Jer, since you’ve done Trek travel trips in a bunch of different places, what would be like one other trip that you’d recommend?

Gravel or road? Either way. Oh, that’s,

[00:25:26] Rapha: it’s like choosing between your children really. Like I adore all the trips and, but for me, this. The classic climb of the Alps. It’s so stunning. It’s beautiful and it’s challenging. That’s one of my favorite trips. And what,

[00:25:39] Craig Dalton: what classic climbs, if you can recall, some of ’em are on that

[00:25:43] Rapha: trip.

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, we start in a place LA Luce and the first ride you’re doing quarter cord Qure. Okay. And, sorry, my mistake. Yeah. Qure. And it’s a, it’s a first. Already you’re getting like 1500 meters of elevation in a 55 kilometer ride. So it’s just day one and you’re already getting straight up, okay, we’re here to climb and we’re gonna go all out the whole week.

Nice. Of course, we, we do the epic outdoors at the end trip, sort of the icing of the cake and so that’s the last climb of the,

[00:26:20] Craig Dalton: of the trip. Yeah. It’s certainly nice for anybody who’s been watching the tour to come over and knock off any one of those climbs that are bucket list.

[00:26:27] Rapha: Yeah, it is, it is a backless trip.

I was fortunate, fortunate enough to climb outdoors on the TDF day in 2022, and the atmosphere there is unbelievable. Just the, the crowd cheering you on it, it just gives you an extra beat and you are just hammering up the hill just because of the people cheering you on. It’s absolutely epic. And then of course you get more quieter climbs.

So Wears is a great climb, but like Holyland. It’s not celebrated enough for just Serenity, and it’s, it’s still challenging. It’s 21 kilometers and but it’s a good, it’s a good time. Yeah. It’s underrated my opinion. Amazing. My favorite call.

[00:27:05] Craig Dalton: Awesome. I love your passion for it, . Thank you. Cool. And I, again, I wanted to thank you for all your help this week.

It’s been great getting to know you and riding with you. If it’s, if it’s unclear in anything we’ve said before, Each day we’ve had one of these guys riding with us and so one person’s in the van and we’ve got one person on a bike with us. So we’ve had good camaraderie and lots of miles to get to know one another.

So thanks again for everything

[00:27:28] Rapha: this week. Thank you to, to you guys. Cause without you we wouldn’t be here. And it’s an absolute pleasure to be guiding you around here and it’s so fun just doing own gravel. Cheers. Thank you.

[00:27:38] Craig Dalton: All right, sir, can I get your name and what you do for truck travel?

[00:27:42] Miqui: Yeah, so my name is Mickey Mic Reta, and I’m one of the guides of the truck travel ju gravel.

[00:27:50] Craig Dalton: And not only are you one of the guides, you’re a local here

[00:27:52] Miqui: in Gerran. Yeah, I’m local. I’m born and raised in Gerran and I’m very happy to have you guys here in Gerona.

[00:28:01] Craig Dalton: actually start with that. You’ve been in Gerona your whole life as you just. What’s it been like growing up here? How has the town changed and as cycling has become more of a hub, how has it been infused into Gerona culture?

[00:28:14] Miqui: So I would say cycling has always been a part of Ger. I remember as a kid going to a bunch of mountain bike races with my brother, probably.

I did my mountain bike race, my first one when I was like six years old. And then, After that, it’s just, it’s been growing like crazy and I remember probably about eight years ago as one, it just went insane. Like all the pros started moving here and somehow it created a community that is just like a magnet for all the cyclists anywhere in the world up until the point that now I would say Juran is the cycling capital of the.

[00:28:55] Craig Dalton: What is it about the roads and trails around here that you think attracted them people to gerona? Obviously, you’ve given us a great sample these five days of what the gravel has been like, and it’s been spectacular. We’ve touched on some of these roads. I’d just like to hear in your words, why do you think everybody’s coming here?

[00:29:14] Miqui: So I would say Jona has everything you are looking for in. Or anything related to cycling? The weather is good all year round. It’s true we have a rainy season, which lasts for a couple weeks or a month. We have a very few weeks in summer, which is very hot in very few weeks in winter, which is very cold.

But the rest of the year is incredible. It has an. Endless options of road riding. If you wanna ride to the peer, you can, it’s a long ride, but you can actually do it if you wanna ride from ju to the coast and do a nice short loop, short-ish you can do it if, yeah, I would say in ju you could be riding for almost a month and you would never repeat a single ride.

[00:29:58] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I believe it. I mean, just from sampling it for this week. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I think it’s great that you’ve. Flat options. You’ve got hilly options. I think today we were up on kind of the local climb you would probably do after

[00:30:12] Miqui: work. Yeah. You guys were up on Los Angeleses, which. I feel like it’s just incredible to have a climb like that starting at three kilometers from the center of Una and yeah, it’s, it’s a long climb.

It’s about 10 kilometers and on top you get views of the purines. You get views of the ocean, well, the sea. Yeah. I feel like we are very lucky

[00:30:33] Craig Dalton: in here. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it’s like probably one of those climbs that every local athlete knows their exact time to the top. Yeah.

[00:30:41] Miqui: I would say that.

People’s fitness, you always ask, what’s their time of Los Angeles ?

[00:30:47] Craig Dalton: Yeah. That’ll tell you if you’re a compatible rider with them. So let’s talk about the, the Trek Jer Gravel tour. I think you had a hand in a lot of the mapping, being a local and figuring out all the roots. How did you go about kind of, I always say whether it’s an event organizer or a tour, it’s almost like a love letter to your community and your trails, right?

You’re. You’ve got guests coming in from out of the country or out of the area and you wanna show them the best of the best. How did you go about thinking about the, the trails and roads we were

[00:31:17] Miqui: on? The thing about this trip is that I had, I had to think that I couldn’t make it super intense cuz sometimes we are taking guests at not super experienced on, on gravel riding or they just come from the.

So I couldn’t make a trip very technical, but as you guys saw, we have a few avid options after the look we do every day, which are a little more technical. But yeah, I feel like I, I was really happy when they actually said, Hey Mickey, do you want to give us a hand with this trip? Because, It’s Una, I’m, I’m, that’s where I started riding and I love grow riding, so actually my favorite ride of the trip is the one where we go to the coast.

So we start in Una. It’s super flat. We actually did on an incredible day. It was super sunny and we stop at the at the sea and yeah, we have lunch by the sea. Then after you guys went for a little swim and then we brought back to Una, we tried to stop at the brewer, which was unfortunately close that day.

But yeah, I just think it’s, I was very happy when Trek Travel said, Hey, do you wanna give us a

[00:32:23] Craig Dalton: hand on this? Yeah. It’s interesting. I think it’s, it’s sort of, you know, I imagine Trek travel draws a lot of road athletes Yeah. Onto their trips. So I think it is very approachable, but definitely had moments where you needed some skill.

Not, you know, I think for more experienced gravel riders, riders, there was, there was no fear. It was just fun and exhilaration. But for a couple of the newer rider, When they were going down the looser descents, they were probably a little bit scared but exhilarated when they got to the bottom. Yeah.

[00:32:54] Miqui: I don’t think it’s, it’s nothing crazy.

We haven’t put anything on this trip, which would be like dangerous or scary for like total beginners. We’ve had intellectual, we, we classify rider in four levels, four being the, the most expert. And we’ve had people on this trip, they’re like level twos and they’ve. They’ve loved the descents, they love the writing.

Yeah. I think it’s, it’s got a great balance of hardcore and not hardcore, so. Yeah.

[00:33:23] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it’s super interesting. I mean, we, we sort of weave through the farmlands and into little villages, and it’s been a real pleasure to kind of pop out of some woods and go through some, you know, 17th century sanctuary buildings and then back out onto some trails.

It’s, it’s super fun. So,

[00:33:39] Miqui: and that’s the thing about Juran, right? So everyone, Toronto is for road cycling, but as a local, I’m a hundred percent sure that there is actually a lot more gravel riding than there is road riding in Toronto. Yeah, I

[00:33:56] Craig Dalton: believe you. I mean, I think within four kilometers of town every day we’ve been on the dirt.

[00:34:01] Miqui: The extension of like farm roads and Yeah, just unpaved roads. I mean, I’m not talking about single track, I’m just talking. Real, what I like to call the real gravel, which is smooth and fast.

[00:34:15] Craig Dalton: Yeah. You were telling me about that railroad line that used to go from the Yeah. The sea to the purities, and now it’s all a gravel road.

[00:34:23] Miqui: so I would say it’s about 50 years ago when they removed the, the train line, the, well, the railway, which there was a train that went from sun follow g. Which is one of the towns on the coast. And then it run all the way up to Ola and now yeah, they just remove the whole railway and they lay gravel on it and it’s just an incredible, it’s, it’s actually a bike path, so on the weekend it’s gonna be full of kids on bikes and yeah, the extension to the Villa Verde, which that it’s included on the Villa Verde, is just incredible.

[00:35:02] Craig Dalton: many kilometers do you think that that trail. It’s over a hundred kilometers. That’s amazing. I mean, to be able to cruise, I mean, and relatively flat presumably, until it gets to the purity side. Yeah. It’s

[00:35:14] Miqui: totally flat. But since a train used to Yeah. Be on it, so they made sure it was super flat

[00:35:20] Craig Dalton: for it.

Yeah. Miles and miles and miles. Going back to the community in Ger, what are some of your favorite kind of, if a cyclist is coming to town, what are some of the go-to businesses they should

[00:35:30] Miqui: visit? So if a cyclist comes in, ger, I would say most people, they would come here for about at least a week. So you’re gonna have time to visit all of them, which they are all a hundred percent worth visiting.

But there is a couple of places. You should a hundred percent go see if you’re here for a short period of time. One of them being a coffee shop called La Fabrica, which it’s only open in the mornings and lunch, so it’s, it’s the perfect place to brunch. Yeah.

[00:36:05] Craig Dalton: Quick aside, I literally ran into someone I know, know from the United States today, and they told us to go have brunch at

[00:36:13] Miqui: Left Africa Till Africa is owned by Christian Mayer and Amber Mayer.

He was, well, he’s a, he’s a former, Yeah, they were the pioneers in Una, so they were the first ones to open a coffee shop, only focused for cyclist, of course, for everyone. And now it has become like a super great, like it’s, it’s a tourist attraction right now, but that’s what kind of triggered the whole cycling movement in Joran.

[00:36:41] Craig Dalton: So La Africa, and what’s the

[00:36:42] Miqui: second one? La Africa. They also have another coffee shop, which is only for. Which LA Fabric is more like brunch and food. The other coffee shop is called Espresso Mafia, which is one meal walking from La Fabrica, and that’s basically where Christian roast the coffee and then you can drink it at Espresso Mafia.

And then another place you should go visit in general, well, mid January. Trek and track travel. It’s opening the first track store in the world, which is gonna have truck travel inside of it. And with a rental fleet, we are going to be the biggest, as in space, we’re gonna have the biggest bike shop in ju, which it’s pretty exciting.

[00:37:29] Craig Dalton: Yeah, that’s really exciting. And then finally, what’s one sort of cultural place within Jerron that a tourist should visit?

[00:37:36] Miqui: The whole old town itself. If you go to Juna, I highly recommend getting a walking tour of the Old Town because you’re really gonna see what our culture is here and how it was in the past.

And everything around the old town is just, it’s just incredible.

[00:37:55] Craig Dalton: Yeah. That’s fun. You recommended we go up onto the wall for sunset. Yeah. And we’ve, we missed it the first night. The second night we, we made it up. We may have had to like randomly climb over a fence to make it there in time because we couldn’t find the way up.

But we got there and it was spectacular with view. Is that the purities that you’re looking at out there? Yeah. You

[00:38:14] Miqui: get to see Purees, you get to see a bunch of things and yeah, there is a restaurant called Aro. Which is in one of the steps. Well, there’s like, Juna has 200 million cathedrals, but in one of them.

On the stairs there is a restaurant called , which they actually film Game of Thrones there. And the terrace of the restaurant, it’s actually on a little like flat section it has on those stairs. And I think it’s a really cool location.

[00:38:45] Craig Dalton: That’s super. Cool. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for all the hospitality this week.

It’s been great to getting to know you and the local terrain

[00:38:55] Miqui: here. Yeah. Thank you guys for coming.

Girona Cycling Friends

[00:38:57] Andrew – RocaCorba: All right. Can I let me get your name and let me know where we’re at. What’s this beautiful place? So my name is Edward Green. I’m the guest, the general manager slash I don’t know what, at Rocka Culpa cycling. So we are a cycling tourism business just outside of Jer Corona in a town called Bans. We are based on a 17th century Catalan estate, or Maia as it is in Catalan.

And we are basically trying to be a boutique hotel with some villas attached, which is exclusively for cyclists, road, gravel, mountain. Whatever you enjoy on two wheels is, is what we wanna do. And how far away from Ger are we? So we are currently 18 kilometers from Gerona, or 10 or 11 miles depending.

Country. And about a 30 to 45 minute ride depending on, on how you get to us. Can you describe where we are in, in the villa right now? So we’re downstairs basically in what used to be the old like area for the animals. So we’ve got some troughs around us, but we’ve done huge renovations to basically create our cycling dungeon down here.

So we’ve got beautiful old vaulted Catalan ceiling. Rustic concrete floors, beautiful stone work, and then cycling history all around us with some beautiful frames. Cycling jerseys. Good coffee from the rocket espresso machine. Everything you can need for a good cycling stay. And what time of year is best to come here?

Pretty much all, all year. To be honest. I don’t think there’s necessarily a bad month anymore, like December and Januarys tends to be quite quiet, but we see strong gravel riding in October, November, and the rest of the year is a lot of road riding. Summer is quite warm, so unless you like waking up early, probably avoid summer a little bit.

But like June and September, October, probably buffer the. I’ll note when you said strong gravel riding, you looked right at exactly a hundred percent. You are the epitome of what we see in November. . Tell us a little bit about the rest of the. So we are on 37 hectares and it’s basically an old, what was an old family estate of the Campier family.

The estate dates back to the 17th century, so 1673, and it was with the same family until 2018 when we took it over to create. What we want to create is basically cycling paradise all you need in one place. Out in the countryside, but close to Gerrin. And how many rooms do you have available here? So currently we’re at eight rooms, but we’ll be at 13 by April next year.

So we’re currently in the process literally starting today, which is very exciting of putting in five beautiful unsweet rooms in this main can poly manor house, partially they’ll have views over down towards the lake onto some vineyards, but also into the courtyard and just generally over the rolling hills of, of Jerome.

And tell us a little bit about the village. So just on our doorstep, we have the town of Olas which has a beautiful lake in it. It’s where they had the rowing for the 92 Barcelona Olympic. It’s a great place for like active people, for families, et cetera. But there’s a lot of rowing. A lot of of the British university teams come out and train here.

A lot of the national teams come and train as well, but generally just a fantastic place to be. Good quality of life and just down to earth and authentic. Amazing. And how do people find out about staying here? So if you have a look on Rocka coba cycling.cc, you’ll find us and you can kind of do anything from there.

Or if you are enjoy climbing, just Google Rocka Coba, you’ll find the climb, and then you’ll find us and the clothing. Amazing. Thank you. Perfect. That was great.

[00:42:14] Oscar – Castilli: Okay. Can I get your name? Hi, my name is Oscar. And Oscar. Where are we standing today? Well, today we are in the, the first flag shipper store in the, in the war from Costelli here in Una. And what’s the plan for the store? What are you trying to do with the community here? Well, una, you know, is the Jamaica for for European cyclists, I think all over the world.

So, right now Castelli store, it’s coming to. The big cycling club in Giona and well, why not in Spain? Nice. And we, we rolled by here last night and there was a big group ride going out on the gravel. Yeah. We have almost 40 people doing the full moon ride. It was amazing. So always we keep a surprise for all the riders.

We stop in a food truck in the middle of the forest with fire. Some dinner and and beer. So it was super fun. That’s amazing. And if someone’s coming to Jerone to, to visit, do you have a calendar of events that they can look at? Yeah, they can, they can follow us on our Instagram and yeah, you can check.

So, but every week we have a ride, so, and 2023, especially now it’s coming a low season for the weather, but from February. So it’s coming. A lot of events. Yeah. Amazing. Thanks Oscar, and congratulations on opening the new Castelli store. Yeah, big pleasure. Thanks for coming.

[00:43:30] Mattias – Rococorba Clothing: All right. Right. Can you tell me your name and your shop? Mattias from Roco, COBA Clothing, Giron Mattias. Tell us a little bit about the brand. Yeah, it’s a brand. It started in 2017 in the top of the mountain of Roco Coba. It’s a very famous climb here in Giron, and I decided to, to put a food truck up there and to start at the same time closing brand called Roca corba.

And yes, five years. Later. I just opened a new shop in GI selling all my stuff, selling online, gold wide, and really happy too. Have, what are some of the products that you sell? I sell Jersey t-shirts, shorts accessories, bags, Macs, beat ons. A lot of things sucks. Yeah. Amazing. These jerseys I see on the wall are beautiful, very colorful, very expressive.

What inspires you and the, the designs? Yeah. Yeah. Right now I have like more or less 50, 60 different designs and I inspir it from everywhere. My slogan is cycling apparel inspired by the rob because we have so many different landscapes or different places and always I, I have inspired inspiration in the.

In our region. Yeah. And when is the shop opening up? I hope next Thursday it will be open. Now it’s ready and I have to do some things, little things, but next Thursday, big opening here in J in the center. Amazing. I’m excited. We got a preview. We are able to pick up some of your lovely clothing. You said you, you’re available worldwide.

Where can people find you on the. Yeah, we can find in ro.com . We have online shop with all the products and we we ship worldwide. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure, .

[00:45:22] Craig Dalton: So that’s going to do it for this first international version of the gravel ride podcast. I’ve been talking and dreaming about international gravel travel for some time. So I was super excited to have this opportunity with track travel. To explore Durona with their Gravel cycling tour. It was amazing trip. As I said before, I highly encourage you to check it out.

As Raffa mentioned. They’re unveiling a whole new series of gravel adventures for 2023. So they’re really leaning into this gravel travel concept. What I loved about it was that unlike a gravel event where you might be focused on. Simply one ride when you visit somewhere amazing. Here. We were able to focus on riding every single day and there was no one ride that we needed to save ourselves for to get across the finish line. It was really about.

Exploring as much as our legs could handle. I wasn’t as fit as I had normally been when I’ve gone over to Europe in the, in the past, but it was still an amazing trip, still an amazing experience that I highly, highly recommend. If you’re interested in connecting and learning more about the trip, please visit trektravel.com . Until next time here’s to finding some dirt under your wheels.

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10 things you should definitely do on your next Girona cycling holiday

If you’re planning a Girona cycling holiday (or thinking about planning one!), this article is essential reading.

In it, we speak with Dave Walsh, a longtime Girona resident and owner of Bike Breaks Girona Cycle Centre (closed July 2021). Dave shares the things every cyclist should do while in Girona.

Though Bike Breaks may be closed, Dave’s tips in this article are still really useful – so read on for the must-do things for the perfect Girona cycling holiday….

1. Explore Girona’s old town

One of the most important things to do while in Girona is quite simple – make time off the bike to just enjoy the old town!

Girona has one of the best preserved city walls and medieval quarters in the whole of Europe. The cathedral is a masterpiece, and someone told me it has the highest unsupported stone ceiling in Europe. So there’s lots of history, beautiful buildings, twisty streets and places to explore.

But you might think, lots of places are a bit like that, why is Girona different?

I think one of the reasons it’s not just a touristy shell, is that people still live here.

Twenty years ago, the old town was a red light district if you can believe it! As the town has gentrified, the local authority has been very astute in retaining the city’s unique architecture and atmosphere – and really making it somewhere Catalan people want to live.

One of the most important things the authorities did was impose hugely strict planning regulations, preventing chain shops/restaurants. As a result, most of the shops are individual and locally owned by people who really personally care about their businesses and are quite design focused.

All that means that today Girona is still a young city with a big University population. It’s very left wing and trendy, there’s a lot of money here, with lots of young professionals and hipsters moving out of Barcelona. Those factors combine to bring about a city that’s very beautiful but also a lot of fun to spend time in as a tourist.

My advice? Make sure you have at least one rest day while you’re in Girona and that you really explore the old town!

2. Play spot the pro rider

“It’s like if you move to Beverley Hills you’re going to see actors. In Girona, pro cyclists are everywhere!”

The reason the riders are all here is that they like the same things we like. They’re young, well paid people, who need the riding and training but also want nice shops and restaurants and want to go out and do stuff. They don’t want to live in a hut in the middle of the mountains!

Of course there’s also the snowball effect, so another draw for them is the fact that there are lots of other riders here. It’s a small community and they want to be where their peers and friends are, so they have people to hang out and train with.

I reckon we service the bikes of 220+ pro cyclists and triathletes, and they’re in my shop the whole time just doing the normal things we all do, getting bikes serviced, buying nutrition and parts and so on. So keep your wits around you when you’re in our shop if you’re keen to spot a famous rider!

The funny thing is that often people don’t recognise pros when they’re not in kit. Marcel Kittel used to come into our shop a lot, just in normal clothes. There was this great day when I was explaining to these three British guys about a route and doing my classic thing of trying to tell them not to go to Rocacorba. Sitting next to them were Nathan Hass and Marcel Kittel who were on the same tem at the same time, and they were agreeing with me.

Hassy was like “yeah, I live here and yeah honestly I wouldn’t go there”. The guys were like “well all the pros go there” – once Hass and Kittel left, “I was like dude you don’t know who you were just talking to do you!”. That kind of thing happens quite a lot!

To be honest, it’s quite unusual if you don’t come across a pro when you’re in Girona. They also love all the cafes we love. On which note…

3. Chill in one of Girona’s cafes

Coffee is one of the things that makes Girona the world’s best cycling destination (yes, I know I’m biased!).

We’re spoilt for choice in Girona. That’s partly because of the pro rider scene too – because they love coffee and often set up cafes and bars.

One of my personal favourites is Federal Cafe, which has lots of exposed stonework and glass and you can get great coffee and also beers.

There’s also Buttercup Cafe, which is a bakery with coffee and awesome cakes.

Blend is pro Ironman Dave McNamee’s place. If you’re into your coffee, they have a famous barrista there – a guy called Frederico, and I’d say he easily makes the best coffee in Girona.

For more of a bar, there’s Bagels and Beers which is a great place. They ran the bar in our Cycling Festival race village last year and hopefully they’ll be able to do it this year too. A couple of riders are the partners behind it and a guy called Adam runs it – he’s absolutely born to be a publican!

Then there’s Rocacorba Cafe, Coffee and Greens, Mckiernans… it’s difficult to choose a favourite! And all of those places you’re going to see pros for sure…

Outside Girona, I like really local places that are less well known. There’s a place I often take people on the shop ride, called Canet d’Adri. He does really good coffee and all the pros go there. It’s about 40 mins from town, so the pros stop there at the end of their rides. I was once there on a shop ride and about 15 riders from the Education First team all turned up at once!

4. Climb Rocacorba (and other better climbs!)

Without a doubt, Rocacorba is the most famous of Girona’s cycling climbs.

But – let me fill you in – it’s terrible!

Okay, perhaps not terrible, but it’s just not the best climb out there. The road surface is bad, there are hardly any views and it’s got a beast of a gradient on it.

Rocacorba is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about helping people plan their routes: I just don’t want people coming here, riding that and thinking tick, that’s Girona done. There are so many other better rides and climbs to do!

I know that whatever I say, first-timers here will feel a sense of having to ride Rocacorba, and to some extent I perpetuate it because we have the Cycling Festival timed segment up Rocacorba! So fine, ride it, but make sure you ride the good stuff too! [Note: the Cycling Festival is no longer running.]

I like Mare de déu del Mont , but one of my absolute favourite climbs is not well-known at all. It’s called El Far and it’s on a 145km loop from us, so a big day out but totally worth it.

The El Far climb is 18 kilometres long and the summit is at the top of a 200 metre high cliff. When you get up there the total altitude is 1,100m and you’ve got a panoramic view of the whole area. There’s a cafe too. It really is awesome! You can see some great photos of the cliff panorama on google here .

5. Ride 360° cycling routes from Girona

One of the other must-dos I always recommend to our guests is to ride in a different direction out of Girona each day. That way you can get a taste of the amazing different landscapes we have in each direction.

In the UK we just don’t have anything so diverse within the same kind of distances. I mean you ride 50 miles from the Surrey Hills and you’re still in the same kind of countryside…

I’d say a cycling itinerary for a first trip to Girona should look a bit like this:

• Coast ride – I just love the rolling roads, thick green forest and the road along the sea that’s really special (Epic Road Rides route  here ).
• Olot for the incredible volcanic landscape.
• Saint Hilari area for inland mountains, quiet roads and deciduous woodland (Epic Road Rides route here ).
• North to Emporda where it’s wine and olive oil country, the roads are quiet, flat to rolling and less challenging than elsewhere but still extremely beautiful. 
• Rocacorba – if you have to! (Epic Road Rides guide  here ).

Note: check out  this article  for our 3 day point to point trip through the countryside around Girona! 

6. Don’t miss the Girona Cycling Festival

[Note (July 2021): sadly, the Girona Cycling Festival is no longer running.]

For the last six years we’ve been running the Girona Cycling Festival (hopefully we can still hold the seventh event post-lockdown this year).

The Festival is different to your classic sportive or competitive cycling event as it’s basically a week-long party in Girona’s old town, with three different main cycling events for people to take part in: Els Angels hill climb, the nocturn crit around the old town, gran fondo and Rocacorba challenge.

The key thing is that the Festival is for everyone – this is not an elite event.

Throughout the week there are parties, group rides and kids races. 50% of entrants are over 50 – the master 50 category is the biggest category. We also love the fact that lots of women take part (in 2019 33% of competitors were women) and we get lots of people on the podium (last year we had 100 people taking part in each event and 35 ended up on the podium for each one).

It’s a really special event.

I can’t finish without mentioning a final statistic that we’re really proud of – in 2019, 86% of people taking part were returning from the previous year. I hope that shows people like what they get from our Festival!

7. Check out our cycling memorabilia collection

[Note (July 2021): sadly, the physical shop is now shut but you can check out the online store here .]

“We’re part shop and part museum.”

We’ve got over 200 framed jerseys on the walls of our shop (and overall we have over 500 signed jerseys)! We’ve got some really random stuff.  For example we’ve got all the points jerseys from all the Grand Tours apart from the yellow jersey. We’ve also got things like unsigned and un-logoed podium jerseys – those things are really rare and hard to get. The more of a cycling nerd you are, the more you’re going to appreciate it and enjoy our shop!

The jerseys we have are all ones we’ve been given over the years. When we started the shop in 2009, there was a smaller pro community than now. We were the only shop that spoke English. They came to us because they knew that if they said “fix my bottom bracket” I’d know what they were talking about. People like Lucy Martin, Emma Pooley and Hayden Rolsten. They’ve retired now, but they were coming into the shop, we fixed their bike, we became friends, they gave me jerseys. That’s where it’s started and it’s just continued from there!

We’ve also got pro team kit for sale; our basement is like an Aladdin’s Cave of pro team cycling kit.

I buy kit from over 100 world tour riders and four world tour teams – and it’s all for sale in our shop. We’ve got just about every piece of pro team kit you could ever want, from jerseys to base layers, to toe covers. Some of them are brand new, some have been worn lightly before, but they’re all extraordinarily good value. We’ve also just gone into components – so you can buy power meters, dura ace pedals or ex pro team bikes.

We’re more than happy for people to just come and take a look at our collections. It’s definitely a bit unusual!

8. Stay in a cyclist-friendly, boutique hotel in the city centre

Girona is a very different destination to some of the Spanish resorts, like Mallorca – and it’s important to appreciate that before you come.

Whereas Mallorca has tons of big resort-style hotels that cater to package holiday makers in the summer, Girona is a city break destination.

This means the accommodation is more expensive, it’s difficult to find half board options (but why would you want to – this is the city of amazing restaurants!) and it’s a bit more tricky booking big groups as not many hotels have 20 single rooms.

On the upside, the hotels are of a city break standard, so we’ve got a great selection of boutique hotels in fantastic old town locations. The hotels are really getting into their stride with catering for cyclists too, so for example if you’re after a solid four star boutique hotel, I’d stay in Hotel Nord, which caters really well for cyclists. The tourist board also has an official designation scheme for Girona cycling hotels.

There’s also a good selection of apartments, which work out quite cost-effectively. Casa Cundaro apartments are fantastic if you want a bit more space, want to wash your kit, want to make more than a coffee. They’re beautifully restored, they’ve got a great little garden, an awesome bike store and bike wash facilities. They’re also right in the heart of the old town so right in the middle of the action and you can just walk out for a beer or a restaurant in the evening.

If you want to talk through the options or get our input before you book, feel free to drop us a line.

9. Visit in spring and autumn

People come to Girona to cycle throughout the year and (in a normal year!) we’re busy from March until the end of October.

Within this

• we see people on training camps visiting throughout March, April and May
• July and August are hot and people are often on their family holidays, so there are probably less serious road cyclists around
• September and October is our favourite time of year in Girona. There are less people around but the weather is often fantastic.
• So if you want to get some early season training in and not have to travel too far to get there, we’re a great choice.

10. Rent your dream bike

[Note (July 2021): sadly, the shop is now shut, but you can find other bike hire in Girona here .]

When you walk around Girona, you instantly feel that you’re somewhere beautiful and upmarket. This kind of quality extends to bike hire too.

At our Girona cycle centre, we have the largest fleet of bikes in the city – and in fact we’re the biggest rental centre for Cannondales in the whole of Europe! We can offer nine different specs and models of Cannondale.

If you fancy trying out a super bike – the kind of bike you may only dream of, this is the place to do it.

Not many people get the chance to ride this super bike but Bike Breaks clients can rent one every day in Girona and ride the same roads than the Cannondale Team uses to train. Pretty cool.

Big thanks to Dave for taking the time to share his insights on what makes Girona such an awesome cycling destination and what we should all do on our next trip. We can’t wait to get back!

Want more information on Girona?

Don’t miss our main Girona destination guide and the ride guides below. They’ll help you plan an awesome trip to one of our all-time favourite cycling destinations.

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If you want someone to help you plan and book your cycling holiday, fill out this form. We aren’t a tour operator/agent but we work with lots of people who are and will do our best to put you in touch with someone that can help (within 24 hours wherever possible)!

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Dave and Saskia run Pro Cycling Outlet, which grew out of Bike Breaks Girona. From their Girona base, they sell ex pro kit to clients all over the world.

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Trek Travel

Thanks for visiting our career page. please review our open positions and apply to the positions that match your qualifications., eu bike mechanic.

Trek Travel is not currently hiring for this position but encourages you to apply if you would like to be considered in the future and we will reach out at the appropriate time. Thank you!

Trek Travel provides global multi-day cycling vacations of a lifetime with the goal of helping more people explore and experience the world by bike. We are looking to add a Bike Mechanic to our  Logistics Team in Girona, Spain. The Bike Mechanic will be responsible for providing our cycling guides with the best equipment and operational support.

The Bike Mechanic must possess a wide variety of skills including thorough understanding of repairs, braking systems, strong organizational and communication skills, and a strong eye for details. This is your opportunity to join the Trek Travel team and leave your mark on our company, on the active travel industry and on the world at large.

POSITION RESPONSIBILTIES INCLUDE, BUT NOT LIMITED TO:  

• Daily coordination and reporting with the European Logistics Manager.
• Repairs and overhauls of our bike fleet both road and ebikes.
• Tracking of maintenance items on a bike-by-bike basis.
• Loading and unloading equipment and bikes from vans and trailers. 
• Tracking service inventory in our inventory management system. 
• Receiving, and inventorying of bikes, parts, and equipment on an as needed basis. 
• Boxing and shipping of bikes and equipment. 
• Be a role model for the company culture and standards. 
• The day-to-day organization of the Girona warehouse, uphold and exceed the standards set for organization and stocking, own the space. 
• Tracking and Reporting – As needed in MS Excel, Word, PBI and NetSuite. 

WHAT ELSE WE’D LIKE TO SEE FROM YOU: 

• 2+ years of bike mechanics; understanding of Shimano Di2 and Hydraulic Road braking systems a must. 
• Valid Driver’s license with passenger endorsement and Passport to travel throughout the US and Europe if required.
• You believe in the importance of hospitality and customer service, recognizing customers are all around. 
• You rock a positive, solution-oriented attitude and always ask “How can I help?” 
• You exude fun and flexibility while contributing to the overall success of the Logistics Team.
• Excellent communication skills – verbal & written. 
• Expert attention to detail, efficiency and works with a sense of urgency. 
• Takes initiative to continuously improve processes and is solution oriented. 
• Availability Monday-Friday - schedule may flex to include evening and weekend hours depending on time of year.

TREK TRAVEL OFFERS: 

• A fast paced, casual, fun, and flexible company culture where initiative and pro-activity are highly valued
• Employee discounts and industry discounts  

At Trek Travel, we think outside the box, continuously improve, encourage feedback, and give it all we got, all the time, no exceptions. This is a part-time position based in our warehouse in Girona, Spain, and reports to the Logistics Manager. Interest in the active travel industry is beneficial, but not necessary.

If you have what it takes to join our team and the desire to help shape Trek Travel’s future, we wish you the best of luck and look forward to your application!

Trek Travel is an Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEO”) Employer and Service Provider. Trek Travel strictly prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, partnership status, sexual orientation, age, national origin, veteran or military status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, or any other characteristic prohibited by federal, state and/or local laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, demotion, compensation, training, working conditions, transfer, job assignments, benefits, layoff, and termination.

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Trek Bicycle Girona is your destination for the latest products from Trek and Bontrager, service and tune-ups for bikes of any brand, and the perfect place to get local riding advice. We’re conveniently located in the cycling capital of the world and just a short walk from the vibrant La Rambla. Our team is passionate about getting more people on bikes, which is why we host frequent in-store events, clinics and group rides. We’re also proud to offer a wide range of hire bikes from road, gravel, mountain and electric bikes. Whatever your experience level and however you like to ride, we welcome you to pop in, meet our team and see what we have to offer. We can’t wait to ride with you! Stay informed about promotions and events via Facebook or contact us by telephone or email: [email protected]

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Riding Towards a Greener Future: Trek Travel’s Sustainability Initiatives with ecocollective 

Protecting our planet for future generations to explore and enjoy is more than a responsibility—it’s a core value of our business. Driven by this, we actively seek opportunities to minimize our environmental footprint, both in our offices and on our trips around the globe. We continually take proactive steps to ensure that our vacations of a lifetime are as gentle on the planet as they are memorable for our travelers. To advance our sustainability efforts, we have partnered with  ecocollective , a leader in environmental impact strategies. This collaboration is centered on a strategy to assess and reduce carbon emissions across our operations. Earlier this year, we conducted a comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory for 2023, which is a critical step towards understanding and mitigating our environmental impact. We are excited to share the results of this inventory soon, along with our reduction goals for 2024. 

As we move forward with our sustainability strategy, we want to highlight three current initiatives that underscore our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint. These steps are part of a broader effort to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our travel experiences, from where you stay to how you explore.

Ecocollective Hotel Survey 

Understanding the environmental impact of our on-trip accommodations is crucial. That’s why we’re introducing a comprehensive Hotel Survey in collaboration with ecocollective. This initiative evaluates our hotel partners based on their carbon emissions and energy usage, helping us rank our accommodations, empower and educate our hotel partners, and guide guests in making sustainable travel choices. More information will be available soon.

Educating Through Carbon Labeling

Knowledge is power, and empowering our guests to make informed choices is a step towards a more sustainable future. Rolling out in 2025, our trip itineraries will feature carbon labeling, providing clear, accessible information about the carbon impact of each journey. This transparency will allows travelers to understand their environmental impact and choose adventures that align with their values. It will also guide our trip designers in creating adventures with smaller carbon footprints.

Recycling with Liberty Tire Recycling

Recognizing that sustainability initiatives extend beyond reducing carbon emissions, we are also excited to announce a new tube and tire recycling program for our US-based trips, in partnership with Liberty Tire Recycling. This initiative ensures that these consumable components of your biking equipment are recycled properly–reducing landfill waste, and promoting the use of recycled materials in new products.

If a date is marked as Private, it is reserved for a private group.

Looking to travel with a small group or looking for a custom date? Call our trip consultants at 866-464-8735

What is the Difference?

Ultimate luxury:.

Savor some of the most spectacular, 5-star properties in the world. Exuding luxury and elegance, these one-of-a-kind accommodations offer the chance to rejuvenate at award-winning spas, dine at Michelin-starred restaurants, and more.

Enjoy luxurious accommodations handpicked for a refined experience. From signature spa treatments to delicious local cuisine, you’ll be more than provided for; you’ll be pampered.

These handpicked hotels provide relaxation and fun in a casual and comfortable environment. Delicious cuisine and great service mix perfectly for a memorable stay.

On select cycling vacations, you’ll stay at a mix of hotel levels, from Explorer to Luxury to Ultimate Luxury. Rest assured, no matter which level of hotel you’re at, our trip designers carefully select every accommodation.

Activity Level

Road : 1-3 hours of riding. Up to 25 mi (40 km). Up to 1,000 ft (300 m).

Gravel: 1-3 hours of riding. Up to 20 mi (35 km). Up to 1,000 ft (300 m).

Hiking: 1-3 hours of hiking. Up to 5 mi (8 km). Up to 1,000 ft (300 m).

Road : 2-4 hours of riding. 20-35 mi (35-60 km). Up to 2,500 ft (750 m).

Gravel: 2-4 hours of riding. 15-30 mi (25-45 km). Up to 2,000 ft (300 m).

Hiking: 2-4 hours of hiking. 4-8 mi (6-12 km). Up to 1,500 ft (450 m).

Road : 3-5 hours of riding. 25-55 mi (40-85 km). Up to 4,500 ft (1,500 m).

Gravel: 3-5 hours of riding. 20-40 mi (35-60 km). Up to 3,000 ft (900 m).

Hiking: 3-5 hours of hiking. 6-10 mi (9-16 km). Up to 2,000 ft (600 m).

Road : 4+ hours of riding. 40-70 mi (60-110 km). Up to 8,000 ft (2,400 m).

Gravel:  4+ hours of riding. 30-50 mi (45-80 km). Up to 4,000 ft (1,200 m).

Hiking: 4+ hours of hiking. 7-15 mi (11-24 km). Up to 4,000 ft (1,200 m).

What are your trip styles?

Classic - reserve:.

Savor the finer things as you relax in luxurious 5-star accommodations and wine, dine, and ride in some of the most unforgettable destinations around the world.

Classic - Signature:

Explore beautiful destinations by bike, enjoy extra inclusions, savor delicious local cuisine, and enjoy the perfect mix of accommodations.

Classic - Discovor:

Enjoy a casual cycling vacation with fantastic routes and comfortable accommodations.

Train like the pros in some of their favorite riding destinations.

See the pros in action at the biggest cycling events of the year.

Cross Country:

Tackle an epic adventure that takes you point-to-point across mountains, countryside, and more.

Self-Guided

Enjoy a bike tour on your schedule with just your chosen travel companions.

Single Occupancy

Sometimes it’s more convenient and comfortable to have your own room while on vacation. We understand and that’s why we offer a Single Occupancy option. The additional price guarantees a private room all to yourself

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