The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Catalonia - Salvador Dali and Costa Brava

June 17th to July 1st

Ride Coordinator: Clarice Sackett
Report by: Kristen Duus

This ride took place in the Catalonia region of northern Spain.  We started in the city of Girona – capital of the Girona province and also a popular home of many current and past professional cyclists including former US Postal Service Team riders Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton.  From Girona we wound our way through the homelands of Salvador Dalí and along Spain’s northern coastline – the Costa Brava. 

This was a ride of much diversity as we traversed through the Pyrenees to France, wound through magical old town villages and hamlets, descended through hillside vineyards, and followed the rugged Costa Brava coastline with stunning views of the Mediterranean and its many small bays and inlets.

Weather in this part of Spain can be warm in June and our first few days of riding were in the high 80’s, but temperatures lowered into the mid 70’s as we moved towards the coast - providing perfect riding weather as we explored this beautiful region.

One unique feature of this ride was that most of the time we stayed two nights at every hotel. This allowed for a variety of options on the second day in each location and many ride participants took advantage of the non-mandatory riding days to explore the village or town we stayed in or take part in other local activities such as hiking and kayaking.

This region was the birthplace and home to surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. We had the opportunity to visit the Gala Dalí Castle House-Museum in Putbol on an optional ride out of Girona and three days later we stayed in Figueres, birthplace of Dalí and home of the Dalí Theatre-Museum and Dalí’s childhood home. One final opportunity to see Dalí’s work was at the Salvador Dalí House in Cadaqués which was built in the 1930’s as the summer home to Dalí.

We learned of both past and recent history of the region including the interest of many locals in Catalan independence, we learned to make Sangria, and we learned of the odd custom of locals adding “poopers” to their holiday nativity scenes (Google it!).

Simon Proffitt with Iberocycle and his helper Agustin provided the ride support for this route and were informative, gave several ride options each day, and coordinated the dinners and daily happy hours.

The ride was well planned (many thanks to our awesome ride leader Clarice Sackett), accommodations were mainly 4-star hotels and the food was very good – often showcasing local specialties.