Girona's cycling reputation began quietly in the early 1990s, when Danish rider Johnny Weltz relocated to the Catalan city during his racing career. Lance Armstrong's US Postal team established Europe's first pro-team base there in 1997, and the trickle of arrivals has since become a settled community — Girona is now home to well over a hundred professional cyclists.
The city's defining test is Rocacorba, a 13.8-kilometre climb from Banyoles that was only fully paved around 2000. Since then it's become the peloton's private benchmark: a sub-30-minute time is the mark of real form, a target pursued by riders from Ryder Hesjedal to Bradley Wiggins.
In 2009, Girona resident David Millar and training partner Michael Barry founded the Velo Club Rocacorba — part social club, part shared obsession — with a members' rule that any climb time under your age plus ten minutes counts as respectable.
Beyond Rocacorba, Girona offers everything from flat plains riding east of the city to the glassy coastal road between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Tossa de Mar, with climbs like Sant Hilari appearing regularly in the Volta a Catalunya — a genuinely complete cycling city, built as much by accident as by design.
