The 340km route of the PIRINEXUS Challenge was created by Event organiser Jordi Cantal back in the summer of 2014 and it’s been held every year since, except for 2020 due to Covid19. The event is billed as a “personal non-stop challenge of 340km”. Participants have until midnight to complete a route that “takes in all types of terrain.” Although the event is timed and is fiercely competitive among the front runners, the organisers say that “for us all the cyclists are equally as important as the first one.”

The special thing about the route is that you get to see multiple landscapes in one day - the Pyrenees mountains, the Empordàand the Costa Brava coastline. Almost 100 starters were at the start in Girona on September 24th. This year the peloton included three professional cyclists - Hayley Simmonds from CAMS-Basso and Ana Dillana & Carlos Verona from Movistar.

The night before the event there was heavy rain and some thunderstorms. The starting shot was fired at 6 a.m. sharp and the riders set off in the dark. On a gravel "Via Verde" (a former railway converted into a cycle path) with many deep puddles and wet feet we climbed gently to our first destination, Olot. 

From here the first of the two long climbs began. It went on for 11 kilometers and we climbed to over 1,000 meters above sea level. The mountains were shrouded in fog in the early morning light. 

This was followed by a quick descent into the valley and the first feed station in Camprodon after 91 kilometers. 

Now it was time for the longest climb over the Pyrenees. After more than 13 kilometers of climbing, the borders to France were reached. An ice-cold wind was blowing and the view was fantastic. On the very long descent it slowly got warmer and warmer. In the valley, the track again led along an old railway cycle path alongside a river.

The second crossing of the Pyrenees in the direction of Spain followed on a small paved path that was full of loose gravel. Once at the top, we went on a bumpy trail to the second feed station in La Jonquera. Here there was pasta and coke for battered gravel bikers. 

Now there was only one climb left, but it had some very steep ramps. After the descent, the wind picked up and of course it came from the front. It was now over fast gravel slopes in the direction of the sea at St. Antoni de Calonge to the last feed station. From here it was about 40 kilometers to the finish in Girona. The last section led over a gravel Via Verde via Llagostera to Girona. 

After 334 kilometers and almost 3.300 meters of climbing, the fastest gravel rider only needed 12:28 hours. The last finishers arrived just before 1.a.m. to the finish after almost 19 hours of riding. 

The event organiser Jordi Cantal plans to hold the next Pirinexus Challenge in September 2023.

If you would like to retrace Timos’s route, you can find it here:

Images by: Pirinexuschallenge/timorokitta/mandyrodriguez