Pyrenees

September 10, 2024

Girona to Rupit

Last spring, we travelled to Girona and stayed at Mas Pelegri, a bike hotel situated just north of Banyoles. We did lots of loop rides from there, with the mountains of the Pyrenees visible on the horizon and temptingly close. Fiona and Gareth, the proprietors, were excellent hosts, and we decided we must return and do a point to point tour to make it further into the Pyrenees, bookending our tour with stays at Mas Pelegri.

John found El Piri, a gravel event from this summer and proposed their route as the basis of our tour. Looking at the videos and description, I agreed to give it a go. John did lots of research and came up with services 50 to 100km apart. With 10 days to do 800km, I was a bit worried about 100km days based on on our tour out of Nice last fall, where we rode 75-80km days on pavement. I figured we could map out a shortcut, if he'd been as over ambitious as last year. (... foreshadowing...) He kept saying 50% pavement. I kept thinking how hard the gravel ride up Rocacorba was.

So I loaded the route on my GPS, and packed the bike for a credit card tour, The plan was to eat in restaurants and stay in hotels, both for comfort and the ability to pack lighter, since we wouldn't need tent, sleeping bags, and cooking supplies, and we could wash our bike shorts and have them dry overnight.

I wore shorts and jersey and carried a spare jersey and shorts, plus arm, leg and knee warmers, vest, rain jacket, warm gloves, hat and headband. For off the bike, I had lightweight long pants, shorts, t-shirt and sweater, socks and underwear. I have a very packable down jacket, that has saved my life on a few occasions. I carried a small bag with wall charger, plug converter, AXS charger, goPro battery charger, and usb cables. A small toiletries bag had toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, and shampoo.

I used a Nathan hydration vest, but also had a small water bladder in the frame bag, in case of long remote sections in hot conditions.

I had 650x48 WTB horizon tires, set up tubeless. This is the largest I can fit in the back. I had 38T chainring, with 11-50 12 speed cassette. I have SRAM AXS electronic shifting, controlled by blips. Wireless shifting makes packing a bike so much easier. My toolkit had a small electric pump, plus a traditional pump. 2 spare tubes, tire levers, chain tool, extra links and quick link, patch kits, a small ratcheting tool with various bits, and a plug kit with spare plugs. John had a few other tools and carried a spare tire.

I had a small handlebar bag, that tucked in behind the GoPro. This came in handy for pastries and other food we bought each morning. I used my iPhone 15 for photos. John has a new Sony camera as well as his phone.

We started the day, heading down to Girona to intercept the route. Unfortunately, despite loading the route in advance, when I tried to start it in Girona, the GPS decided it couldn't cope with the full route. We ended up wasting lots of time, while I chopped the route into more manageable segments. Once moving again, we had great scenery.

We climbed a paved road up to a very impressive dam. We enjoyed the road along the reservoir, but suddenly made a sharp turn onto a very rough rocky track. The next few miles were very chunky, and given our delays getting the GPS route working, we were running late for our target time to our first bnb. John texted our host to let him know we'd be late, but fortunately the final run-in to Rupit was down hill, so we weren't as late as I feared. Our bnb was great and dinner at the hotel was fabulous.