Gravel ride: Girona Welcome to Cycling Central

Girona in Catalonia has become one of Europe's most popular cycling venues thanks to its weather, roads and culture. But it's still possible to leave the hordes behind by going off-tarmac

- Nick Christian

The qualities required of a good gravel ride are not dissimilar to those you would ask of a decent pub quiz. Make it too easy and pretty soon everyone will get bored (did someone say Gravel World Championships?), yet if it's too challenging, catering strictly to specialists, frustration will set in.

No one wants to look like a dummy so, whether you're testing your legs or cerebral lobes, both trails and trivia should provide a gentle massage of the ego.

In addition, both should contain enough variety that the differing talents of everyone in your team are catered for - something that has been grasped by my ride partner and guide for today, Louise from Girona bike shop and touring company Eat, Sleep, Cycle.

Louise has devised a gravel ride that will take us from the heart of Girona in a large anticlockwise loop, and which will take in tough climbs, speedy flats, forests, orchards, smooth tarmac, cobbled streets, pretty hillside towns and some of the most perfect gravel you could hope to find.

To get my excuses in early, I inform Louise that the day before I not only made an assault on the infamous Rocacorba climb (10km at 7% average gradient) but then followed that by joining a 50km group ride that I thought might be a gentle social spin. It turned out that this being Girona - the group was full of pros, and while the pace may have been gentle for them it was leg-shredding for me.

Louise tries to reassure me that, although today's ride has almost 1,300m of climbing, it's mostly packed into the first third of the route. I'm not sure that this is particularly comforting but at least the temperature is perfect, neither too cool nor as ferociously hot as it has been here lately.

Louise has selected as our starting point Plaza de la Independència, which seems appropriate considering how