Lloret de Mar’s cycling inventory is great. You just need to see where it is located, next to the Mediterranean, in the heart of such a cyclist territory as Girona and its thousand landscapes. Plus, the Montseny is a stone’s throw away, the great plains belonging to the Empordà, and the city of Girona, the place where many professional cyclists live.
Due to its location and services for cyclists, Lloret de Mar is a window to the options that the Costa Brava offers to the good bicycle lover. In the same way, Melcior Mauri tells us:
“It is an excellent place to take advantage of the bicycle, there are many and very different landscapes close. From the middle mountain of La Selva, through the Sant Hilari area, to Montseny itself, very tough, without forgetting the roads from the Costa Brava to Tossa…”.
Melcior Mauri was a cyclist between the 80s and 90s. To his credit, one Vuelta Ciclista a España victory stands out, twenty years ago. Plus plenty more wins, many of them achieved in the time trial discipline, the most objective way to measure the effort and progress of a cyclist.
He is frequently at Lloret de Mar, for several reasons. He organises his Campus in the municipality and is the ambassador of one of the hotel chains that specialises in cycling tourism in Lloret de Mar.
“A destination like Lloret de Mar offers great options to the cyclist. You can go towards Vidreres, as well as towards Blanes or Tossa, following the coastline”, continues Melcior.
The most authentic Costa Brava and mountains
“Here the profile of the coast is excellent. You can get through Tossa up to Sant Feliu de Guíxols, even try yourself at the hill of Sant Grau. It is a thrilling visual environment and highly recommended for the most cycling season, that is in spring and autumn, because in summer, as it is an access route to the beaches, it commonly has a lot of traffic. For these times of the year, there exist other routes more suitable”.
For quieter routes, the interior provides a network of small and charming roads:
“The Baix Empordà area is not far and offers many roads to ride hard, even to train with the wind. We can access the interior from various places, finding good steep slopes where to file the legs”.
If you want to fly high: there is the Montseny. “It is there with the Turó de l’Home, Collformic, and Santa Fe, it is hard, and kilometres are going back and forth from Lloret. Moreover, we have other climbs with their particularities, such as Santa Pellaia, the Ganga, and Sant Grau, among others” adds Melcior.
Everything mentioned above may involve a total of 600 kilometres distributed by secondary routes.
Lloret has everything a cyclist needs
The city of Lloret de Mar is a quiet and placid environment during the most common periods to travel for cycling – spring and autumn. In this way, it is possible to have a large hotel infrastructure and services with the spotlight on cycling.
“The hotels have seen that cycling is a good source of income, in the off-season, and they have kitted out themselves very well. There are up to 14 certificates that demonstrate the municipality’s level of specialisation. They must have a very useful bicycle station, where you can safely store your bicycle, without any worries, along with a small bicycle workshop, and an area to clean the bicycle”.
In the hotels, all kinds of gastronomy necessary for the cyclist can be found, international cuisine including pasta and rice, as the main sources of carbohydrates, added to all kinds of grilled meat and fish.
The cyclist who seeks improvements has their place here, as do cyclists that ride for pleasure and to find new places too
A place that is progressively growing among cycling circles, achieving something that Melcior Mauri considers very important in a destination “the emergence of a culture, a cycling environment in which those of us who travel with our bicycle feel comfortable”.
