A quick espresso before the ride, cobbles in the old town, pros waiting at the traffic lights. For many, Girona has long been more than just a training ground. Road riders, gravel enthusiasts and trail runners have been drawn to the region for years. But as life in the city grows ever busier, the desire for distance grows with it. About an hours drive north, in La Garrotxa, you find the counterpoint. Quieter, wider, refreshingly unforced. Everything is still asleep as the sun slowly rises over the hills of La Garrotxa, brushing the stone walls of the masia and bathing them in warm gold. Nestled at the foot of Mare de Du del Mont, where the Pyrenean foothills fade into forests and ancient lava flows, lies Off Grid Girona.Once you arrive, theres no need to drive anywhere else. Hiking trails, running routes, as well as gravel and road loops all start right outside the door. The landscape is rolling, calm and surprisingly expansive. Dense woodland alternates with open ridgelines, with traffic reduced to a distant rumour.A 17th-century masaOff Grid Girona is a 17th-century masia, a former Catalan farmhouse still deeply rooted in the landscape of the Alta Garrotxa. Its not a boutique hotel, nor a curated retreat in the usual sense. Instead, its a house that shows its history openly while allowing it to continue.The renovation follows this idea with conviction. The original fabric remains intact without feeling like a museum. Thick stone walls, old wooden beams and clear proportions define the spaces. New elements are deliberately restrained and subordinate themselves to what is already there. Nothing feels staged, nothing decorative for the sake of it.The main house has ten individually designed rooms, complemented by a converted barn with four additional bedrooms. The rooms are generously sized, quiet and functional. Natural materials, muted colours and plenty of daylight set the tone. Theres no television and no technical distraction. Instead, you get windows with views, rustic luxury furniture and surfaces that are allowed to age.Where agriculture once shaped everyday life, openness has taken its place. The communal areas are spacious, yet carefully designed to preserve privacy. You meet casually, linger for a while, then move on. The house imposes nothing, yet provides structure, and thats precisely where its strength lies.Off Grid x GRAN FONDOFor our test sessions, Off Grid Girona was far more than just a place to stay. For two weeks, it served as a fixed home base while we juggled multiple bikes and constantly changing setups. One decisive factor was the workshop. Space, light and calm. Changing tires, fine-tuning setups, washing bikes and storing them properly. Exactly what you need when testing is meant to be structured rather than rushed.Our rides started right from the doorstep. The surrounding routes are ideal for putting road and gravel tires through their paces in real conditions. Quiet tarmac roads, changing surfaces, long climbs, fast descents, plus everything from fine to rough gravel through forests and across open ridgelines.Off Grid doesnt function like a classic bike hotel. Theres no staging and no event character. Yet this restraint is what makes the place so special. If youre working, you find structure. If youre riding, you find calm. And after the final test session of the day, you return to a place where everything has its place. If you dont just want to read about Off Grid Girona but experience it for yourself, now is your chance. Together with Off Grid Girona, we are giving away a three-night stay including breakfast and one dinner at the masia in La Garrotxa for two persons (one room). To enter, simply send @offgridgirona ba private message on Instagram with the keyword GRAN FONDO.ConclusionOff Grid might not be the place for everyone. And thats exactly what makes it so good. If you are looking for constant room service, a television and permanent connectivity, or if you need the buzz of Girona city, you wont find it here. But if youre after a retreat that brings together nature, movement, good food and honest architecture, youll find it hard to leave. Everything is within easy reach without first burning miles in traffic. A calm, well-functioning counter-design for people who are active outdoors and do not need noise indoors. No gimmicks, no staging. Instead, landscape, great food and enough space to rediscover your own routines. Off Grid Girona is a refuge that understands the ride as well as the rider. A place where life on the bike and life beyond it move to the same rhythm. For more information, visit offgridgirona.comDer Beitrag GRAN FONDO Cribs Off Grid Girona erschien zuerst auf GRAN FONDO Cycling Magazine.

Stage 4 of Paris-Nice is a day that will stay in the memory of many in pro cycling, fans and riders alike. The brutal weather conditions, the importance of the riders who have crashed, Jonas Vingegaard's clothing... There were dozens of stories to be told from the stage. We take a look at those from...

Swiss Side says the new version of its Gravon Carbon 500 is its most aerodynamic gravel wheelset to date. New hubs and spokes lead to a reduced system weight of 1,620g and the new wheels are cheaper, too. Jean-Paul Ballard, Swiss Side founder and CEO states: The goal with the new Gravon Carbon 500 was clear: deliver measurable performance improvements, reduce the weight, and make it more fun to ride. The new Gravon Carbon 500 wheelset has a 50mm-deep carbon rim with a 36.5mm external/24mm internal width hooked tubeless rim, designed to support wider gravel tyres. Read more: Best gravel wheels in 2026: top-rated gravel wheelsets and buying advice Road efficiency, gravel strength The 24mm internal-width rim is aero optimised for 40mm to 45mm tyres. The cycling aerodynamics specialist claims aero efficiency comparable to aero road wheels with the strength and compliance needed for gravel riding, as well as crosswind stability and the agility to tackle technical terrain. While the rim is compatible with gravel bike tyre widths from 35mm to 65mm, for the best aero performance Swiss Side recommends 40mm tyres for racing and 45mm for all-round, all-conditions riding. The DT Swiss 350 hub is laced with straight-pull DT Swiss Aerolite spokes. The rim is laced to DT Swiss 350 Spline hubs with a 10-degree engagement angle using 24 DT Swiss Aerolite and Aero Comp straight-pull spokes, a switch from the J-bend spokes used in the version 1 Gravon wheels. The wheels are available with a Shimano HG11, Shimano Micro Spline or SRAM XDR freehub. Swiss Side claims a weight of 1,620g per wheelset (760g front, 860g rear), which represents a 126g weight saving over its previous-generation Gravon wheels. The new Gravon Carbon 500 wheelset is sold with rim tape pre-installed, and with tubeless valves and valve extenders. It is priced at 1,105 / $1,620 / 1,439 via retailers, although you can buy it from Swiss Sides site for 884 / $1,295 / 1,199. Swiss Side has also recently launched a new road wheelset, its first with carbon spokes, the Hadron3 Ultimate 380. Designed for pro use in climbing stages and with DT Swiss 180 hubs, the wheelset weighs a claimed 1,213g and is priced at 2,357 / $3,465 / 3,199 or direct from Swiss Side at 1,885 / $2,765 / 2,559.

Paul Seixas's younger brother Nino interned with the team in December

Welcome to the Paris-Nice Liveblog. After a chaotic day marked by heavy rain, strong winds, numerous crashes and several withdrawals, the peloton faces another potentially treacherous stage today. The general classification is still far from decided, and several riders will be eager to respond after...

AI. It stands for Artificial Intelligence, and everybodys talking about it. AI is poised to completely alter the way we think, live, breathe, knit baby booties, teach ourselves to juggle, and subtly manipulate our loved ones by microdosing them with guilt. Its also coming to pro cycling to tell the riders what to do:Okay, AI is one thing, but I was fascinated to learn that Richard Plugge, manager of Team Visma-Lease a Bike, singlehandedly (singlefistedly?) introduced pro cycling to the fist bump:You know, Im used to getting laughed at by people. I always laugh last, says Richard Plugge, general manager of Team Visma-Lease a Bike.Ive seen it many times that a few years later, or even a few months later, people are adapting the same things we do. Ill give you one example: we dont shake hands anymore in the Tour de France. We fist bump. When we started that, people were saying: Haha, theyre crazy. But now everyone is doing it.Though evidence shows fist-bumping in the Tour de France at least as far back as 2013:Were you manager of BMC in 2013? Were you? Explain that one, Plugge!Next youll claim you invented the Glasses Wipe:Or the Package Presentation:Or the Phone Call-Nipple Twiddle:But that was all Cav, baby. All Cav.Though now that I think about it, maybe teams should use AI to devise creative new victory salutes. Lets give it a shot, shall we?Oy. The prompt was A pro cyclist winning a bicycle race and doing a creative and entertaining victory salute, but theres nothing particularly creative or entertaining about that one. By the way, it looks like AI-generated pro cyclist Marty Geka is wearing a Livestrong bracelet on his left wrist; either that or he was out parting the night before la Jaques Anquetil and forgot to cut off the little bracelet that tells the bartender hes old enough to drink.As for team managers using AI for other stuff besides victory salutes, Im not laughing, because its probably a very good idea. In fact I happened to be reading this story recently, which shows the pitfalls of relying on a human to figure stuff out:Wow. How does the USA lose at baseball to Italy? Thats like Italy losing to the USA in eating really good cuisine and not working that hard.And yes, I realize the Italian baseball team is basically a bunch of Americans with Italian last names, but dont overthink it.As for cycling, theyll use AI to determine race tactics, which means directeur sportifs will soon be able to sit back in self-driving team cars and let the computers do all the work. This is especially bad news for the French, because an AI tactician could potentially spell the end for doomed Bastille Day solo breakwaways:Examples include establishing whether to join a certain breakaway break, when to attempt to form echelons and split the peloton in crosswinds, or optimising the perfect timing for an attack.You could attack 80km before the finish line, be on the screen and ahead of the game for the next 10km, and even if you dont win, everybody will say: Oh, you did a great race. But was it really worth it?Then again, maybe the AI is programmed to factor in sponsor exposure, and it will run a cost-benefit analysis of some guy you never heard of riding off the front for three hours, getting caught, and being spit out the back like yesterdays Croque Monsieur.Of course, amateur racers always copy the pros, so Im tempted to say that soon theyll all be riding with AI earpieces. However, Im not sure the technology will carry over in this case, since 95% of Cat 4 races end in a bunch sprint where half the field proceeds to crash. Therefore, any AI worth the subscriber fee is just going to tell you its not worth it before you can even get your bib short straps over your shoulder, and what amateur racer is going to pay good money to spoil the delusion?Though apparently theyre already using it to train:It sounds quite useful, too:AI training apps, powered by large language models (LLMs) or machine learning algorithms, process data from your wearable devices heart rate, sleep, power output, HRV to generate personalised training plans. The theory is that these models, trained on vast datasets, can spot patterns and adjust your workouts accordingly. So, if your sleep is poor and your heart rate variability drops, the AI might downgrade your session to something easier.So it can tell you youre tired. Amazing.Its also available to tell you that you suck 24 hours a day:Apps like Vekta hope to offer something coaches cant: 24/7 availability. The platform will soon go a step further, introducing Vekta Agent an AI assistant to whom athletes can ask questions about their own data, such as those surroundingsleep qualityorcarbohydrate intake. The vision is a round-the-clock partnership, the human coach and the AI assistant working in tandem.If your sleep quality is poor heres a tip: stop calling your coach in the middle of the night with questions about your carbohydrate intake.Still, your friendly neighborhood coach would like to remind you that you should continue paying a human anyway:Recreational cyclists risk becoming too reliant on AI, potentially ignoring their bodys feelings, he says. Over-dependence on tech can overshadow internal cues, intuitive training, and body awareness. While AI offers valuable guidance, a balance is crucial.Yep, actual coaches are about to become the rim brake of training:[But can AI scream at you to ride faster?]So much for that.

Remco Evenepoel has had a roller-coaster of a first part of the season, but it didn't end anywhere near the terms he hoped for at the UAE Tour. In what were his first long climbing efforts of the season in race, he struggled against a world-class field. Belgian national coach Serge Pauwels believes...

Featuring more singletrack than ever before and a new start location in Hot Springs, Arkansas, DOOM now has three routes ranging from 110 to 325 miles. With help from the organizers at Ozark Gravel Cyclists, we compiled a massive collection of more than 100 loaded race rigs lining up for DOOM 2026, featuring bag and gear highlights for each. Dig into part one here...The post Rigs of DOOM 2026 (Part One) appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

As an online publisher, a great deal of our traffic comes from your Google searches. But in recent years, Googles search result pages have become more competitive and crowded places. This is due largely to an increase in shopping results, sponsored results and, most recently, AI Overviews. This means our reviews, advice, news coverage and features can be buried among paid-for links, e-commerce sites and synthesised information that no human has written. Were not alone in worrying about the impact of AI results on our website traffic and what that means for the future of journalism (gulp) but, ultimately, thats something for us to grapple with. What it means for you is that our independent testing which no brand ever pays for can be harder to see, as can the kind of in-depth cycling tech coverage you can expect from us at races such as the Tour de France. The good news is Google seems to be aware that people want a way to cut through the noise. It recently made it easier to control what you see in your search results via its new Preferred Sources feature. What is Google Preferred Sources? Google Preferred Sources is a new feature that enables you to choose which sites appear in your search results. When you search for a topic, Google shows a Top Stories carousel near the top of the page. Preferred Sources puts you in control of which publishers appear there, so the sites you trust show up more often. And you can add BikeRadar to that list. How to add us to your Preferred Sources on Google The quickest way to add BikeRadar to your Preferred Sources is to follow this link. Or you can do it through a search: Search for any topic on Google and find the Top Stories carousel in the results Tap the star icon next to the 'Top stories' label to open the Preferred Sources panel Type 'BikeRadar' into the search box and tick the box next to our name Click 'Reload results' Once youve done that, you should see more results from us on Google. So thank you! Another way you can see more of our content Aside from setting your preferences on Google, the best way to receive the latest news, analysis and reviews from BikeRadar is to sign up to our newsletter. We typically send out a round-up of the latest news, reviews and advice on Tuesdays and Fridays. And on Saturdays, we send The Breakway, a column written by our senior tech editor, Warren Rossiter, where he gives his take on the latest cycling trends. To receive our newsletter, you can subscribe via the sign-up box below.