some of the best roads I’ve ever cycled on | a week of cycling in Spain

join us for six sensational days of cycling in northern Girona, Spain, exploring remote mountain roads, brutal climbs, and out of this world scenery from Rocacorba and Del Mont, to a tough ride to the French border on some sensational roads

One of the best cycling holidays I have been on to-date. Based out of Off Grid Girona – check out their place here (an ideal place to base yourself for a cycling holiday) – https://offgridgirona.com/

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/39635109

00:00 Trailer
01:27 Intro
04:29 Day 3: suffering up Del Mont 87km 1700m
14:04 Day 4: bonking 81km 1800m
23:02 Day 5: Hincappie Loop from Girona 59km 800m
29:58 Day 6: riding to the French Border 104km 2300m
40:08 weekly ride stats

#GironaCycling #CyclingSpain #RoadCycling #cyclingvlog #cyclingHoliday #CyclingMotivation #CyclingAdventure

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hello. We are back again in the beautiful Spanish town of Jirona. Well, actually we’re not in Jerona Town Center this time. And we are staying a little bit north closer to Bolz in this little sort of remote retreat in the middle of nowhere. And it is sensational. It’s absolutely a bit of me. Well done. We’ve got ourselves an escapee. What are you doing out here? What are you doing? You’re meant to be in there. Hey, what are you doing? So, this is the resident doggo. It’s meant to be in the uh the hotel. Don’t know what you’re doing out here, mate. get you on your walkies. What are you doing? Enjoying that head scrub, aren’t you? So, yeah, I’ve come out for another week of working and cycling and doing all that sort of stuff just because I want to try and make the most of the freedom I’ve got from this sort of freelance or self-employed job that I’ve got at the minute of creating content. And especially now the weather’s started to turn a little bit sour in England. Any opportunity I’ve got to escape and bring the bike out to sunny nice places like Spain, you best believe I’m going to be doing it. The KPI for Dan Limited in Q4 is get as much winter sun as I physically can do. That is all we’re going to base the success of of this quarter on. I’ve come out with company for once. I’m not on my own. We’ve got Grant with us who also does quite a lot of content creation, too. He’s got his own page that I’ll link in the description. and we’re just going to be spending a week exploring sort of northern Jirona, I guess you would call it, places that I’ve not been before. Today we got out on a climb called Rocka in a little 67 km ride with about 1,300 m, 3 hours of beautiful riding for the most part. Uh the climb was quite quite tough actually. Some of the road surface was a little questionable and the gradients were pretty steep for Spain. uh talking like 10 9%s in that for quite long periods of time and just getting eaten alive by the the mozzies. It’s a a haven for them because we are in the middle of nowhere. So yeah, come along for a week because we’re going to be documenting a couple of the rides that we’re doing and I’ll show you around this mad gaff that we are staying in. It’s it’s absolutely beautiful. A little bit more glitz and glam than the the one beds that I normally get when I’m coming on a trip like this by myself. So yeah, let’s have a beautiful week out in Jirona. Right, good morning. Today we have got ourselves about 85 km or so of bike riding to do. We sort of easing ourselves into it. You know, the first day we did 30k cuz we had a 3:00 a.m. alarm. We had the early doors flight and we were both shells of people that day. You sort of got the early flight thinking, “Oh, we’ll make a full day of it when we get there.” But we was just had nothing in us. So did 30k then 70k yesterday with 1300 m of climbing and then today we’re doing about 85k with 1300 m again. So building ourselves into it. Weather’s a little glooier than it was yesterday but there’s a storm going on in the UK at the minute. So you ain’t going to catch me moaning about it. Still going to be like 18 19 20°. So yeah could be worse. Blowing up my line and got me missing calls. Told her you ain’t got to hit me till you licking balls. Feel like ZVF, baby, I’ll be cooler than the mink weather. Make a coke bottle, give me brain till I think better. Back up on my [ __ ] again. Hanging out with Benjamin. Franklin got me stanking in the lank and talking dividends. On our way to meet some of the boys at a cafe in Banola’s Lake. Oh man, it’s so beautiful around here. Proper stunning. Reminds me a little bit of Anacey Lake. You ready? She got spot by the [ __ ] ass. Do you have magnes? I’mma need that right after the head, please. Bet your [ __ ] leave way before my bread leave. Got them googling the caption trying to see who said these. Tell these hateful [ __ ] I’ve been choosing love. It’s the God, baby. Tell me really who’s above. These [ __ ] walked and always talking what it used to was. Meanwhile, I’m raising up them digits like the booster club. I’m in my finest. I would hit the shower [ __ ] for one. Doing push-ups, running laps around the comfortable chilling. Where are the best roads in Jerona, Lawrence? This one right here. This is actually [ __ ] gorgeous, isn’t it? We did this, bro. That’s what he just said to me. He said, “This road’s amazing.” This is more like what we envisioned as like Jirona. Do you know what I mean? This is like nice quiet roads as opposed to the main roads that we did. Yeah, we’ve done a couple of main roads since we’ve been here. We did that rocket cora one yesterday. It was that was all right. The road surface a bit gash. But did you stop at the fridge half? No, it’s two in the zone. Two in the zone. Lots. We just reached the foot of the climb we’re about to go up called Delmont. About 18k I think it was. Thousand meters of climbing. Gonna be a bit of a bit of a long two hours, I reckon, getting up this thing. But these roads we’ve been on today have been prime time. Jirona, super smooth, rolling, quiet, nice views, nice scenes, literally no cars. It’s been just ideal. I tell the time to tell the principles when I begin it’s not very nice and hell I’m see it all inviting and only time can tell the nice I’m witnessing the walls are sinking in without a cause I see these inter spoon turn into pain I’m running ink my tentacles begin to drip yeah so anything could happen watch my brother undercover every hint of passion take my number suffer and begin the action no runners up Don’t give a [ __ ] I twist it in a fraction. Circling my imperfections. This is a pattern bursting from the indigestion reaction surface in the interction. It’s time at the intersection. Oh, there he goes. No, no. I’m looking like I’m suffering. Don’t worry. There he goes. I’m drooling right now. That’s how hard it is. The other boys have pulled off. Grant ain’t well. He’s been ill. So he’s feeling a bit rotten. So he’s not carried on. They’ve pulled off and gone back to the accommodation. I’m just going to go to the top. It’s a monster climb this. I’m like 12k in. I’ve got another 6k to go. I figured whilst I’m here, might as well have a go to the top. E. It’s a gorgeous climb as well. Really nice. Enjoying it a lot. Let’s see what it’s all about. sitting on Lawrence and Justin’s wheel has uh done a bit of damage to me and Grant. I think they are big hitters. So, they’re at zone 2. We’re at threshold. Heart rate’s been high 150s, 160s for the last hour and a half, 2 hours. And uh feeling a little bit weak now. Just had my final gel. Say a little prayer to cycling gods and hope we get off here as I hit the steep basting gradient. What’s this [ __ ] It’s actually a bit of a battle this. I didn’t realize the back end of the climb was going to be this steep. Had to put myself in a bit of a hole, but I’m one in a bit kilometers away now. [ __ ] h. It’s been brutal this. I hope the cafe at the top is open, you know. Come on, man. Feel like we could be on for a bonker. Not much going to the pedals. I’m so close. I can’t turn back now. Look at the state of that. Oh god. Oh, it’s really tough this. I wasn’t expecting to feel like this today. Stay together. Wow. Not even got any words for that. So that in the distance behind me is the Pyrenees mountains. [ __ ] hell. Honestly, boys, I’m This is uh done quite a bit of damage to me. This need a chalky milk ASAP. We’ve done it. And it looks like the cafe is open. Oh, that’s incredible. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Oh, God. Let’s go get some sugar. There we go. Pro recovery tip. Start the recovery before the ride’s even finished. Look at this. Never seen this brand of chocolate milk before, but it’s delightful. Good stuff, man. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Day four out and about on the bikes. My legs have reached the point where feel a bit flat, but they also feel quite warmed up at the same time. You know what I mean? There’s like a a bit of an ache to them, but they feel quite ready to go as well. It’s quite It’s all right. It’s not so bad. I felt pretty stiff the last few days to be honest, but uh yeah, we’re warming into it now. Today’s mission, we’re going to Sardz, which is a town I believe or something along them lines near a national park. I mean, we’re what 20k in so far. Slow going, but it’s unbelievable. Again, as you’d expect, let’s have a look at the road surface here. Sardinas Don’t know if that’s how you pronounce it, but it’ll do. We’ve got Grant back in the game as well after yesterday. Feeling a bit better, mate. M I feel like a new man today. Really? I slept for 10 hours last night and I think fingers crossed I’ve shifted it, but hopefully today it’s now me that’s going to be a bit of a shell. I timed it wrong. I should have come home yesterday after that turnoff point, but felt like cuz I was so close to the top. Might as well come back on and actually see where I went yesterday. I’m sure the eye will pick that up. Stay alive. I’m using the time to tell the principles when I begin. It’s not very nice and hell I’m seeing and only time can tell the night we slicing. I’ve been a fool. I’m witnessing the walls are sinking in without a cause. I see these interlink. I’m living cool. I watch the silver spoon turn into pink. I’m running thin on ink. My tentacles begin to drip. Yeah. So anything could happen. Watch my brother undercover. Every hint of passion. Take my number. No more suffering. Begin the action. No runners up. Don’t give a [ __ ] I twist it in a fraction. R of satin circling my imperfections. This is a pattern bursting from the indigestion. I can’t get down here. Stumbled across this random Jesus. stumbled across this beautiful old town bridge. That’s nice. That sure you don’t fancy riding down this harass spec. I reckon you’ve got 30s on your bike, don’t you? So, you’re probably better suited. And I’m tubeless as well. Grant’s still running tube cuz he’s an old time. Oh, look at it, mate. That’s beautiful. You know what’s crazy about places like this? In places like this, they’re so quiet. If this was in the UK, it would be like rammed full of people. What you saying? The Spanish don’t appreciate things. Yeah, kind of. That’s steep, man. Woo. Basically on an out and back road now to Is it just a restaurant or must be is I think there’s I don’t know like a church or something up there. Okay, that makes sense cuz there like buses and stuff for tourists. Time to fuel the hell back up. Right, here’s the hole. Blue Red Bull juniper or juneberry flavor. Tastes like a bit like blueberry twix Haribo and then just some normal angua. So I’m crazy spirit. So we get up and take a minute to ask the village. Switch it up and change the image. Now we open enough to win it. Round it up and touch the finish. There’s no luck and there’s no limit. Like the time is now. I can’t get in. The sound a couple times until I find. I load the picture down to the ground. remember that pizza place? That one was That was the one we went to originally, but that’s shut as well. It is 2:00 p.m. and it is literally siesta time. Nowhere’s going to be open, I don’t reckon. I have to get another ham sandwich. It’s a cute little town though. Found somewhere for food. Is it an Italian? This is a bit of a mix of everything. It’s got some Italian stuff and then some paella and Spanish stuff. Going for a carbonara, I think. Hopefully that’ll per me up a little bit. Yeah. You’re joining me back. Been about an hour just not recording anything cuz been in a bit of a hole. Felt like a sack of potatoes for a while and then we tried just eating a heinous amount of sugar and I’ve come back a little bit. I feel better than I did half an hour ago. Sort of going up the Delmont climb again. Got Grant with us this time dragging me up. Am I getting much draft at 8 km an hour? She is. Look at that. on the final couple of kilometers. These are the toughest ones. I think the final 3K average like 9%. It’s bit of a sting in the tail, but we’re nearly there. 1.5k to go. Yeah. How did you find that climb then compared to what you thought it was going to be? Uh, it was hard. Yeah, it was hard. My stomach’s not in a good way after that poor poor lunch that we had. We should have gone to McDonald’s. I think would have been better quality food. But I mean, this is well worth it. Yeah, this we just saying on the way up, this is like almost Morcaesque in how like grand it is. I think other climbs in Jerona, like El’s Angels and that, they’re beautiful, but they’re not as like epic like the ones in Morca, but this one definitely rivals the Morca stuff. Phenomenal roads perfect all the way up. We’ve not seen Well, we saw two cars on the way up. Been no cyclist. It’s been the road to ourselves more or less, which is just what you want when you do these kinds of things. Hello from day five on Jerona Boot Camp. Um, we are riding again today because that is of course what we’re here to do and my legs are feeling it at this point. We’ve done four rides so far. We’ve covered 250 odd km and 5,000 m of climbing. I think that’s what’s uh that’s what’s doing me legs in. It’s the climbing. We’ve done three big days of going up mountains basically. And now my legs are really feeling it. It’s like a just a tender ache, but I am feeling pretty like flexible and mobile, which is nice cuz I’ve just been engaging the muscles for the last 4 days. And today we’ve got I think it’ll be a little bit of an easier day. We’re doing the Hen Capappy loop in Jirona. So, we’re going to drive down to Jirona, meet Lawrence again, and do the Hen Capy loop, which I think is about 60 70k with, I don’t know, 1,000 m of climbing. All pretty gentle, though. What’s been doing me in is these stupid double digit gradients that we’ve been doing on Rocker Corba and Belmont. So, today should be fine. My body just ain’t used to this level of battering. I normally go maybe two or 3 days max and then I’ll have a rest day and let my body recover. Whereas obviously out here, what we’re trying to do is just see what happens when I do six, seven days of cycling in a row. See how my body reacts and yeah, get prepped for this bloody hill climb thing we’re doing on the weekend. I thought as well, just out of interest really, I would go through what I ate yesterday to drag me out of the deep pit that I was in to a good place. I finished the ride feeling better than I started it. Basically, it was quite cool cuz normally I would just bail on a ride like that if I was feeling that bad. And I felt weak in my legs. I felt weak mentally. Felt like just shite. And it wasn’t enjoyable. So what I ended up eating to bring me back around to planet Earth was two 80 g carb mix, four gels, a haribo, a Red Bull, a Twix, a pasta bowl that we had like when we was out for lunch, and then some electrolytes and stuff as well. on a 4-hour ride. That is excessive, but it’s what I needed to to bring me back around cuz I think I was in a bit of a glycogen deficit, you know, for the last few days of riding and I’m potentially not eating enough whilst I’m here to stay fueled properly for these types of uh multi-day rides. Anyway, let’s get to Jirona because we have another ride to do and hopefully it’s going to go better than yesterday. Driving to Jirona today and we’ve got to get two bikes in this very small Spanish car. Oh lord. Don’t know if you can see that, but I’ve done our best to protect them. Hopefully, it’s enough. A wild VC. Let’s get it just spawned. Just had a factor of an Israel premier tech rider scoot on past doing his intervals. Welcome to Jirona. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, it’s funny. You You think you’re getting confident on the descents and stuff like that. And I’m a lot better than I was when you ride with people like him. And I I actually descend like a sack of potatoes. It’s humbling. Oh man, Lawrence and Grant have just set off on some intervals. Lawrence is doing like 360 watts for 8 minutes times three. I thought I’d be able to hang on for at least a few minutes. No, no, no. I feel good today in zone two. Anything where I’ve got to push a little more, my legs are that fatigue is very, very obvious. Under strict instructions from my legs that it’s zone 2 only today. Message received loud and clear. Don’t you worry about it, lads. You sure? Doesn’t look like it’s a pay thing anyway. So, go on. How was uh your experience with the Happy Route? Do you know what? I could I could do that a couple of times a week. Like that’s it’s just perfect. Get out for a couple of hours, do your interval sessions. Yeah, it was great. It’s nice easy riding. It’s a shame we couldn’t stay longer. I wonder if we could come back in the next few days. No, mate. We’re going to France tomorrow. Yeah, apparently we’re going to France. Cycling to France. But we’ll see. We’ve not actually checked the specs on it, but apparently France is pretty close to where we are. We’re that northern uh that north away from Jerona. But we’ll see. Right. Today we’re heading to France. We’ve got 100 km, 104 km, and 2,100 m of climbing or something silly like that. Just driven about 20 minutes from the gaff to a place. And now we’re going to go and ride our bicycles through the national park at altitude and get to France. Right. Are you feeling prepared? Uh I feel like the route today is a bit ominous. Like it’s got what two 2,300 m of climbing, 100ks over some pretty big mountains, I think. Yeah. Yeah. We don’t know where it is either. It’s not like a dead popular route. It’s sort of Well, Grant’s made it on Kimoot, so A lot of pressure on that route. Yeah, I’m a bit nervous. Okay. And we are on day six of riding our bicycles now. So, fatigue is well and truly set in. Although, my legs feel pretty good after yesterday’s like easy recovery spin. I think got to flush a lot of the lactic out. So, I think if we just eat enough today, we’ll get round. It’ll be sound. Trying to stay alive. I’m eating minerals and vitamins. I tell the principles when I begin. It’s not very nice and hell I’ve seen it all inviting and only time can tell the night prevail we slice it thin. I’ve been a fool and witnessing the walls are sinking in without a pause. I see these intervals all inter. I’m lyrical. I watch the silver spoon turn into pink. I’m running thin on ink. My tentacles begin to drip. Yeah. So anything could happen. Watch my brother undercover. Every hint of passion. Gracias. What? So, the route today is basically split into two. We’ve got about 50 km of climbing. Literally, just the first half is more or less climbing with a couple of little descents and then the second half, if we make it that far, is all downhill for the majority. So, just got to get through the first 4 hours and then we’re we’re basically home after that, which is all downhill. You seen the state of this one? 4K 9%. Oh dear. Looks like the hardest one of the day though. Yeah, we’re just going to be on this single track mountain road for the next 3 hours. It’s just us in the super cars. Not a bad place for a road trip. churning the pedals to get up here. It’s one of them ones where you got to push 240 watt so you’re going backwards. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. What was he saying? I was just trying to ask if the cafe was open. Think we got there. We’ve uh before we start the main big boy climb of the day, we are just going to have a gather around this little old town just see if there’s some H2O or a Red Bull ideally, but Wow, look how nice it is. It’s insane. Oh no, you’re not recording me recording, are you? That has to be deleted right away. What a road. We are plotting our way up this heinous climb. It’s really quite nice actually. We’ve done 1,200 odd meters of climbing already and we’ve got 1,000 to go until we get to the summit of today’s route. It’s been so quiet. It feels quite alpine around here. I don’t know if it is technically a pyrenees or what, but that’s what it feels like to me. Got to do that again. Here we go again. We’re on the hunt for a Red Bull. I’m flagging a lot. 2 hours 30 minutes in, 46k down, 1500 m of climbing. [ __ ] 46k. 46k we’ve done with 1500 m of climbing. That’s like Alspec uh riding that. Oh no. It’s about 2 km until we get border. I can see it. I don’t know what I’m expecting to see here. It’s not going to be like any border we’ve been to before. Is that it, Jack? Yeah. [ __ ] go. Unbelievable. Going to be a happy boy when we get to the top of that. We are in France. Right, we summitted getting some electrolytes in and then we are getting out of here and descending for the next 50 km basically. Oh god, my legs need that. Right, the final stretch. What have we got? 30 kilometers back now. We’ve h just pulled over for a pizza. God, I am in the bin. This town we’re in is beautiful, though. Just something about the the old Spanish architecture. Like, look at this. It’s nice, isn’t it? Oh god, feel like a shell of a bloke. Just stopped at spa. Going to get some food and refuel the glycogen stores cuz they are so depleted at this point. So depleted. I am knackered. We’re done though. This is the last day now because we are leaving later this afternoon. Done all the riding we’re going to do and it’s been incredible. This part of Jirona, unbelievable. Like we did a whole ride yesterday that was like 4 and a half hours on incredible roads. Some of the roads that had featured in the Welter and local races and stuff like that. Didn’t see a single road cyclist all day. It’s ridiculous. But my legs are feeling it at this point and I’m happy to go home cuz I need a rest. So yeah, here are the specs from these six days. So 421 km covered, which is pretty mad. 8,500 meters of climbing, which explains why my legs feel the way they do. And yeah, just under 19 hours in the saddle, which probably the biggest six days I’ve ever done on the bike. And definitely the most consecutive days I’ve cycled. It was interesting cuz I thought at some point on like day three, four, five, I would just start to feel incredible and hit world tour form, but it wasn’t quite like that. I was just knackered and my legs were aching and I just felt really weak on the bike. So, I don’t know how these dons do it in the Grand Tours, these sort of seven days and three weeks races. I just I mean I simply cannot fathom it. But it was a good experience just to see how my body holds up doing 6 days of consecutive big cycling. I think the main thing was it’s not the biggest distance so much, but because we did so much climbing, that really rinsed my legs and the nature of the climbs we’re doing being like double digit gradients. A lot of it Yeah, man. It uh it hurts. But yeah, we are going to have to go and pack up all the stuff now because like I said, we’re flying back to Manchester this this evening and then we have got hill climb at Snakes’s Pass on the weekend which I’m pretty buzzing for actually. That’s just a 5k climb. I’m just going to give it an allout effort and hopefully some of the form that I’ve got from this trip or the training should have like sunk in maybe. I don’t know. I’m going to have a few quiet days from here. And yeah, I genuinely could not recommend this offrid gaff enough. It’s been sensational. I mean, look how beautiful it is. The staff are incredible and the location is mint. If you want to explore some of the more sort of off the-beaten path type of of road riding around your own heard there’s a lot of gravel as well in this part of the world. So yeah, thank you so much for watching and I guess I will see you in the next one.