September 25th, 2021

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Girona - what a town for pro cyclists and what a nice anyways. After 1 year of absence because of corona Sea Otter Europe was back. We had a little booth with SP Connect and needed to prepare everything upon my arrival on friday. As the show on saturday started at 4pm there was plenty of time to enjoy a ride in the training terrain of pro riders coming from all over europe.

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Girona on Costa Brava always was a touristic city but the bicycle influence came in the 2000s. At that time Lance Armstrong came to Girona to escape media in Marseille. But inofficial sources tell you a different story. Armstrongs "Medical Support" was living in spain. When in france due to the doping sheriffs life was increasingly more difficult his doctor didn´t want to come to him any more to support Lance with some pharma products to avoid being catched by police. So he recommended Armstrong should come to Spain. But next to the beautiful town he also found perfect training conditions there. A lot of riders like Tyler Hamilton or Floyd Landis followed. Today still a lot o pro riders stay there during winter to prepare the next season.

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Nevertheless without any doping maybe such as motivation i asked a guide i met at the hotel for a nice loop and followed his recommendation. I went to the west to first ride through Aiguaviva and El Mas Llunes to Bonmati. A great ride through the forrest on a winding road without cars. It felt really good and a few riders were as well doing their training.

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From Bonmati another climb up to Constantins and furtheron to Llora made my way until i needed to do a left to include another uphill to my tour. Font de la Torre the name of the area. The landscape allowed to have a nice view down to Girona and i enjoyed the downhill, even with a little additional loop due to some road custruction. When you start in the morning or when you return after your tour - definetely you need to visit a bicycle coffe shop in town. This is what i did at the end of my ride. Very stylish and good coffee - exactly what pro cyclists need.

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bike: Pretty Betty Specialized Tarmac S-Works

starring: Gerry Samer