[Closed] Catalonia Trail

I suggest you try asking on the Bearbones Bikepacking forum, where you might receive some advice from someone local to the area.

As above, i am sure Duncan (Pistonbroke) on Bearbones could give you some advice?

I'm on here too. Reason for me being suggested is that I live in Cataluña and have done several similar events here. This is a new event so the route will be released to those taking part in the official start on the 19th of April. I am happy to help with long distance routes but have no prior knowledge of this one apart from the general area it's going through and a singlespeed would be a long way down my list of ideal bikes for such a hilly course. Have you booked anything yet? When exactly are you coming, I may be able to advise a better route and lend a hand with logistics.

Hi! That's great thanks. We're not fixed on anything route wise. We live near Grenoble and have a spare week next week and the weather looks best down where you are! We were planning to do the Grand traverse of the Massif Central here in France: i.e. mountain biking rather than gravel. That said though we could be persuaded to do gravel stuff: From what I can see it's either tracks or steep technical stuff in the mountains whilst we were hoping for something inbetweeny...Any suggestions? Ideally a loop to allow us to leave our van.

Something to suit a 29er rigid with mtb tyres (surly Ogre) and either also a Surly Ogre for me but singlespeed or a 40mm 700c cyclo cross bike that has proved itself on the Torino Nice. Not adverse to big days on the singlespeed as have done the GTV (Vercors traverse) in 2 days...just not after an absolute epic EVERY day... I'm put off the singlespeed from what I have read due to the gravel riding to be honest.

I'm actually riding an event called the Burrally which starts on the 15th i.e a week today. It starts in a seaside village called Vinaros and finishes south of Valencia 5-6 days later. It's a free event with about 30 riders, a fair few hills, up to 1,600m, it's designed so you can easily get a train from the finish back to the start. It's a bit further south than Girona so should be a bit warmer. We're about 4 hours south of the French border and the event start is 1/2 an hour from here. If you're interested, the website is here
Burrally
By the way, I run a coast to coast bikepacking trip in May, using the Burrally as a shakedown.
Spanish C2C

Double post, this site is such a car crash.

Thanks Pistonbroke. Looks great. We would be well up for that except it won't work due to the days we have available etc. It's just that extra bit too far to justify doing it by ourselves so I'm taking the gravel bike and we have a gravel route mapped out that a friend rode back in early Jan and are combining that with a bit of the pirinexus to make a loop. Have a great ride. Dan.

Having ridden the whole 360km of the Pirinexus in a non stop event in 2017, I think you might find it a bit tame. Its mainly old railway lines and flat gravel roads. Have a look at wikiloc, the first 2-3 days of the Transpyrenees trail starting near Roses to somewhere like Baga or Tremp and back via Olot, Besalu and Figueres would make a nice loop.
If you're interested, we start the C2C trip from Tarragona on the 10th of May. Given the other participants are flying back to the UK from Bilbao, I can get you back to the start by car the following weekend.

Thanks Pistonbroke. The more I look into the area the more it sounds appealing. I got the impression the Pirinexus was going to be boring as well. We will look into your suggestion for a loop. It should work nicely. Thanks for the advice, we'll let you know how we got on.

This guyhas posted a lot of stuff in the Pyrenees, I used his trail to ride from Llanca to Irun, 1,000km in 11 days. There are some rough sections but nothing silly, I was on a fully laden rigid 29er and coped ok.

Thanks.
The mates route we talked about was actually a loop from Llanca. I just didn't notice his 7th day as it was on the following weeks data in Strava. Anyway it looks like this:
Catalonia

The google map link also shows the pirinexus. If you did the event in 2017, did you come across a guy riding it fixed?

That looks a good route, I've ridden the bit from Llanca to Sadurnes and some routes in the volcano region of the Garrotxa. I also put together a 5 day trip from Reus to Girona that used the tracks around Rupit but we had to bail early as it was last August and mid 40 degrees. I did see a guy riding fixed on the Pirinexus, I was riding with Steve Heading and we caught and passed him at halfway on the return crossing of the Pyrenees near la Jonquera just before the heavens opened and flooded the roads.

Hi piston broke, so we did the route that my husband posted above and we had a great time. It was very varied and often demanding in a good way.
Luckily we had one storm and it was overnight. Some of those trails I wouldn't fancy in the wet.
I was on my rigid 29'' (Surly Ogre) and it was perfect. Husband was on a gravel bike with canty, he had to push up and down sometimes. Some of the climbs and downhills were real steep.
We very much enjoyed the feeling of seeing the place properly (it's often the way on a bike, isn't it?😉)