For those still wondering why there were even more cyclists than usual in Girona last weekend, the answer is simple: the 6th edition of The Traka was being held, one of the world's great events in the specialty of gravel . While in 2019 it started with fewer than 100 participants, over the May bank holiday weekend more than 4,000 cyclists of 74 different nationalities took part. The event is organized by a Girona-based company, Klassmark, which has found a gold mine for growth in the field of gravel. It organizes the Gravel Earth Series, ultra-distance competitions around the world for all types of gravel tracks.
Pedal from Girona to Torrent in two days to raise funds for a project swallowed by the DANA
Valencian Álvaro Muñoz will travel 600 km to help the Col·lectiu Soterranya, in the Xenillet neighborhood, which uses bicycles as a social driving force.
07/05/2025
2 min
GironaThere are many ways to ride a bike, and pedaling can also become a driving force for change. After a weekend in which the world's largest gravel cycling event, The Traka, debuted in Girona with the grand challenge of measuring 560 km and almost 10,000 meters of elevation gain in just over a day, a 28-year-old Valencian novel editor living in Girona is setting out to take on a similar challenge this weekend. Álvaro Muñoz will exchange his editing skills for his great hobby: road cycling. On May 9, he will leave Girona and ride 600 km in two days to his hometown of Torrent (Valencian Country) to raise funds for an organization that works with young people at risk of social exclusion and is still affected by the consequences of the DANA (Driving Disability Act).
The project is called Sense Rodes and was born from the situation faced by the Col·lectiu Soterranya, which works in the Xenillet neighborhood of Torrent, after the ravages of the cold snap that devastated southern Valencia at the end of October. It's an organization whose work revolves around bicycles. On the one hand, it promotes transportation for everyone by giving bicycles to those without a means of transportation, but on the other, it also trains young people to be mechanics through workshops.
Target: 2,000 euros
"This group was greatly affected because they have the facilities next to the ravine and when everything happened, they realized that they had given all the bicycles they had reserved for people at risk of social exclusion to people who had lost their cars," explains Muñoz. Now, through the Sense Rodes project and GoFundMe, they have already raised about 1,500 euros and the goal is to reach around 2,000 so that, in addition to purchasing bicycles, they can also repair the workshop facilities in Xenillet. "Another project that is in danger is the Public Library that they promoted in the neighborhood, where they hold reading workshops and help the little ones with their homework," adds the promoter of the Sense Rodes project, who details that Xenillet is one of the most conflictive neighborhoods in the State.
Prior to the route on Friday, some solidarity training sessions have already been held to raise funds. Muñoz has been training in recent days to ride more than 250 kilometers a day and is happy to be accompanied by friends for a good part of the project: both the first part to Manresa, then to Tarragona and upon reaching Terres de l'Ebre, where the Ebre Cycle collective plans to join dozens of people to do the same. As Muñoz says: "600 km separate us, but a single way of understanding life unites us."
4,000 cyclists of 74 nationalities participate in The Traka
