Girona
The Gavarres Loop
Curated by Gritline editorial · Last ridden Feb 14, 2026
119 km·1,942 m
From 93 m·Up to 412 m·112 km
The route
Girona is gravel's worst-kept secret. From the old town you can be on red dirt within twenty minutes — out past Sant Daniel, climbing into Les Gavarres, the cork-oak ridge that hides between the city and the Mediterranean. This loop covers the same ground that opens Santa Vall each spring: a counter-clockwise sweep through the heart of the massif, riding the dirt that the international gravel scene queues up for once a year.
The terrain is mostly fast — packed clay under pine and holm oak, with the occasional steep ramp out of a riverbed and a few rooty pitches that ask you to commit. There's no single big climb; instead it's the accumulation, a thousand metres of vertical bled out across the day. By the time you crest the last ridge and roll back toward Girona on the old farm tracks, you'll have done one of the best gravel routes in Catalonia.
You'll also understand why this region became the gravel capital of southern Europe. It isn't the singletrack or the views, exactly — though both are good. It's that the dirt goes everywhere. You can leave from a coffee in Plaça de la Independència, ride for six hours, and barely touch tarmac.
Best ridden March through May, or September through November. High summer turns the clay to dust and the heat is no joke. Carry more water than you think — fountains exist but they're sparse once you're inside the massif.
Surface mix
Granular surface breakdowns (singletrack, mud, rock, etc.) live in Komoot — open the GPX there for the full picture.