In September 2025, I had the pleasure of visiting Girona, Spain. Girona is a popular cycling hub where numerous famous athletes including Jan Frodeno reside because of the excellent weather, roads, and variety of routes available.

Training Leading up to Girona

I did not do any specific training for this trip. The year started off rough after catching COVID19 in January and having to take off several weeks as I followed the protocol for returning to exercise. Although I was almost entirely asymptomatic, it took several weeks for all performance metrics to fully recover.

After that, I had a steady, focused training block of several months where I reached my highest level of fitness to-date. This year, I was able to check-off several longstanding goals such as a VO2 Max of 60, under 1 hour of Alpe du Zwift (58:21), under 20 minutes on Bear Mountain (19:52), and hit my FTP goal of 3.7W/kg including holding 200W in Zone-2.

In conjunction with strength gains at the gym, I would consider my buildup leading to this trip as prime.

Trip Strategy

The plan was simply to complete all the notable routes near Girona. In total, I planned for six rides, and since I was staying 7 days I could afford 1 rest day. This plan was distinct from the Bormio or Mallorca trips as there was not a singular flagship ride, but rather a series of moderate rides. This meant recovery and energy preservation was key as I had many back-to-back 100km+ rides with considerable elevation gain.

Figure 1: GPS overlay of the different cycling routes

Day #1: Els Àngels

71.11km, 1003m Elevation Gain

The first ride was doing the local Els Àngels loop, which meant doing both Els Àngels (Category 2) and Alt de Santa Pellaia (Category 3) on the way back. The views were not that impressive, but the descent down the eastern side of Els Àngels was one of my favorite descents I’ve ever ridden of the winding nature, excellent road quality and good visibility around corners.

Day #2: Mare de Déu del Mont

125.97km, 1905m Elevation Gain

This ride was the longest ride with the most climbing. The centerpiece of this route is the Mare de Déu del Mont climb which is a category HC climb at 5.9% grade and 925m of elevation gain. While the incline doesn’t seem challenging, there are a few flat sections, which lead to a deceptively low average gradient.

The final 1.5km are at a solid 9.7% which includes several shorter sections above 14%. Towards the top the trees begin to fade and make way for rock formations and stunning views of the Pyrenees. If you compare it to Mallorca, this climb is harder than those found on the island including Sa Colobra.

Figure 2: One of many hairpin turns on the climb

Figure 3: The summit at Mare de Déu del Mont

Day #3: Rest Day Run

10.34km, 105m Elevation Gain

This was a rest day, where I went for a run instead. A few days after I return to New York, I had to run the NYRR Bronx 10M race so I didn’t want to lose all adaptations.

Figure 4: Running trail on the outskirts of Girona

Day #4: Tossa de Mar (Coastal Loop)

120.07km, 1668m Elevation Gain

This route was very scenic, and included riding along the Mediterranean coast. There were a lot of short ups and downs, but no major climbs except for Els Àngels des de Madremanya which was harder than climbing it from the eastbound direction.

Figure 5: View of Tossa de Mar and the Mediterranean coast

Figure 6: Picture of my dad riding behind me on the windy roads

Figure 7: Overlooking another cliffside along the Mediterranean coast

Day #5: Sant Hilari Sacalm and Susqueda Dam

109.36km, 1590m Elevation Gain

This route going westward from Girona featured both the Sant Hilari climb (Category 1) and the Susqueda Dam. The ride was unique in that the majority of the route felt remote and in a mountainous region.

The unfortunate part of this ride is that I burned my right calf after descending to the dam; I accidentally touched the brake disk when I got off my bike and it burned my skin right off. It was quite painful in the moment but no option apart from moving on!

Figure 8: View of the Susqueda Dam after descending from Hilari

Figure 9: Eastern viewpoint of the Susqueda Dam

Day #6: Rocacorba

73.24km, 1206m Elevation Gain

The final route was centered around Rocacorba, generally regarded as the hardest climb in the region due to its varying gradients, and is a Category 1 9.82km climb with an average gradient of 8.4%. The views were not particularly impressive, and on the descent I had a minor crash where I overcooked a corner and could not stop as the road surface was wet.

I did a tempo effort up this climb at 220 W. It wasn’t particularly quick, but considering the accumulated fatigue over the past few days I was satisfied with the results. I got a segment time of just over 56 minutes.

Figure 10: Elevation Profile of the Rocacorba climb

Figure 11: Summit of Rocacorba overlooking towards Girona

Apart from Rocacorba, the route started with some gravel and passed Banyoles Lake which was beautiful.

Girona & Barcelona

Aside from cycling, I also had the opportunity to explore Girona and spend a day in Barcelona. Girona is a cute medieval town which was featured in many movies and TV shows including Game of Thrones.

There are a lot of cycling/triathlon oriented shops and cafes, there’s even billboard advertisements for conferences by Shimano. Barcelona pleasantly surprised me, the beaches and architecture combined with the clean and wide boulevards were a pleasure to sight-see.

Muralles de Girona (city walls) overlooking the Cathedral of Saint Mary

Retrospective

This trip went exactly as planned and Girona delivered. While I don’t plan to return, the trip met my expectations and was an enjoyable experience. If I were to change something about my trip, I would have done more research on food options as I did not enjoy Catalan food as much, and I found the dining hours unusual — dinner often started after 8pm.

Looking forward to future trips, there’s a lot planned for next year so stay tuned ;)

YouTube Descents

Feel free to watch some descents on my YouTube channel!