Welcome to Girona! While this beautiful city of 100,000 has long been the political and cultural center of the Costa Brava, it has more recently become a global cycling destination due to the fantastic road and gravel cycling it offers. Girona first came to the attention of the cycling world when Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie set up shop here in the early 2000's, and it is now home to hundreds of current and retired pros, with a growing reputation for its gravel scene. Beyond the cycling, Girona is loaded with historic sites (originally founded by the Romans in the first century BC), some of which you might recognize from the Game of Thrones. With no cycling scheduled for Sunday, you'll be free to explore this impressive city at your leisure. You'll also get a second shot at touring the town when we return to Girona Thursday afternoon to wrap up the tour!

We'll pick up our rental bikes after breakfast and head south towards the sea, taking advantage of Girona's extensive bike path network for miles of smooth sailing before launching onto the 3-mile Sant Grau climb over the Massis de Cadiretes, a beautiful forested conservation area. After cresting the climb, we'll be rewarded with a thrilling 4-mile descent towards the Mediterranean before intersecting with one of the most scenic roads in Spain! Perched on a cliffline overlooking the sea, this beautiful curvy road will take us the remaining six miles to our destination - Tossa de Mar, with its beautiful beaches and signature medieval walls. To give us a chance to catch our breath and really savor our arrival at the sea, we'll drop into a picturesque cove a few miles before we reach Tossa for a well-earned lunch on the beach!

Tuesday morning we'll pick up where we left off by hopping back on the super scenic cliff-hugging road and taking it 12 miles north to the next beach town, St Feliu de Guixols. From there we'll downshift to tourist mode, as we roll from one coastal town to the next, soaking up the beauty of their beachside promenades and tackling the punchy climbs in between. After a dozen miles of working our way up the coast, we'll stop at a pristine undeveloped beach for lunch by the sea. The last third of the ride after lunch will take us through the three beach towns of Palafrugell, widely considered to be the crown jewels of the Costa Brava: Calella with its white-washed buildings and fishing village heritage, Llafranc with its picture-perfect marina, and finally to tiny Tamariu, an idyllic cove that will be our home for the next two nights.

After breakfast at the beach we'll head inland to ride through wide-open farmland that will feel like a journey back in time as we make our way from one historic town to the next, each with classic Spanish stone architecture, and all under the watchful gaze of a distant hilltop castle. It's a great ride and a nice change of pace from the coastal riding of the previous two days. Of course, to get to these peaceful farm roads, we will first have to climb our way up from the beach. It's a tough start with three miles of climbing, but once we reach the peak of the climb we will be greeted by a jaw-dropping view of the Mediterranean coast complete with an 11th century castle in the foreground! From there, we'll have four miles of descending followed by another 30 miles of easy rolling before stopping for lunch in the historic town of Pals. Another nine miles later, we'll be back in Tamariu for a relaxing afternoon in our quiet cove.

Having explored the coast and the countryside, we will finally turn our attention to the mountains as we work our way back to Girona. After a six-mile warm-up skirting around the city of Palafrugell, we'll launch onto the first climb of the day, a two and a half mile killer that will definitely wake up the legs! As hard as this climb may be, it's just the beginning of our adventure in the mountains. The real climbing starts around the halfway point of the ride as we head into the mountains of the El Balconet de les Gavarres nature preserve for a challenging seven-mile climb. Once we crest that beast, we'll ride the ridges for another three miles over to the top of Els Angels, arguably the most famous cycling climb in Girona. While the paved version of the climb may be more popular, our gravel conquest of this peak will be even tougher, making the view from the top that much sweeter! After bombing the first four miles of the descent into Girona, we'll stop at an amazing restaurant perched on a hillside overlooking town for a celebratory meal with a panoramic view. From there we'll hop off the pavement and ride the gravel backroads into town, return our rental bikes, and toast a week well-spent exploring this amazing corner of Spain!