Sa Costa Brava: Gravel Ride

Not far from Girona (Catalonia, Spain), in one of the cycling hotspots fn Europe, there is a beautiful seaside town called Palamòs. From this place ‘Sa Costa Brava Sunset’ by Klassamark kicked off, a gravel cycling event of 82km around Empordà region.

It was a long time we couldn’t enjoy this moment of riding in event due to the pandemics, so we were glad to be part of it. Organisers took every measure to protect the riders.

During the summer time the weather gets crazy hot here, so Klassmark came up with this idea of having an event starting in the sunset – sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?

At 19:00 riders start rolling up to do the first kilometres during the sunset. Leaving Palamós the route started with a 5kms tough climb, then to enjoy a fast downhill to head to Empordà and from there to hit a 47km long flat section through all the medial towns.

Fast and dusty roads brought us to the pit stop at the small town of La Sala. There we fill up our bottles and got ready to do the last 30km – crossing the Gavarres, a mountain ridge – before seeing the sea again. This stretch had to be done during the night, with the lamps on! It’s real fun riding in the night observing your mates’ red blinking light down the road. And this also allows you to enjoy some freshness that we all miss during this hot months here in Spain.

Last part was especially adventurous and indeed felt very epico! We were riding some small lost dirt tracks in the woods featuring bumps of up to 20% steep which had to be taken only with the light of your cycling head lamp. Last three hills made lots of people suffer, but then we saw the lights of Palamós on the coast and it’s then when you feel the satisfaction which makes the pain being worth every bit!

We can’t wait to live another epico experience, follow us on Instagram for more of it, and now enjoy some photos from the event.

Stay tuned for the next stories, we’ll tell you more about the Girona region and about so exciting gravel cycling.