Training guide · Gravel · Girona, Spain
How to train for The Traka
30 April 2027. Girona's gravel week, with the distances spread across separate days and the longest ridden through the night. Here is what the day asks of you, and when your plan has to start.
- Date
- Fri 30 Apr 2027
- Weeks to go
- —
- Start
- Girona
- Routes
- 100 · 200 · 335 · 560 km
- Climbing
- Not published by organiser
- Format
- Timed, mass start, routes on separate days
What this event asks of you
The Traka is Girona's gravel week, with the distances spread across separate days: the longest routes go first, the 200 and the 100 follow. The riding is Catalan gravel at its most varied, from fast farm tracks to rough forest roads and technical descents, with dust when it is dry and real mud when it is not. The 560 km route is an adventure ride more than a race, long enough that sleep becomes a decision. The 335 km route is the serious one-day distance, with remote sections where you carry what you need.
The demand scales with the distance you choose, but the pattern is the same: long hours of steady power on rough surfaces, with concentration and handling needed most when you are most tired. Rough gravel costs more energy per kilometre than tarmac, so fuelling plans built on road rides fall short. Train long rides on mixed surfaces, practise descending when fatigued, and ride with the load of food, water and tools you will actually carry. Spring in Catalonia can be warm, so build heat tolerance into the final weeks.
The day by rider level
| Route | Typical finish | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| 560 km | — | Multi-day self-sufficiency, sleep decisions, steady power across remote terrain |
| 335 km | — | A very long one-day effort on rough surfaces, fuelling for gravel not road, handling when exhausted |
| 200 km | — | A full gravel day with technical descents late and heat as a factor |
| 100 km | — | Varied Catalan gravel at a steady effort with handling as the focus |
When your plan has to start
Counted back from the event date. If the organiser moves the date, these move with it.
Decisive features
- 1Catalan gravel and dust
- 2Long remote sections
- 3Technical descents
Routes are published by the organiser each year. Climb and sector detail will come from the route engine once the GPX is loaded.
Other guides for the same block of the year
- How to train for Paris-Roubaix Challenge10 Apr 2027
- How to train for Dirty Reiver23 Apr 2027
- How to train for Mallorca 31224 Apr 2027