Girona doesn’t need to be sold to cyclists anymore. Thanks to all the pros who call it home, the city in northeast Spain has become one of Europe’s premier cycling hubs, and one the biggest beneficiaries of Girona’s booming cycling culture is The Service Course.
Set up in 2016 by former pro and recent Cyclist Magazine Podcast guest Christian Meier and his wife Amber (though now run by another former pro, Simon Gerrans), the custom-bikeshop-cum-bike-rental-service-cum-travelcompany-cum-community-hub is supported by a plethora of talent including Kasia Niewiadoma, Michael Woods, Esteban Chaves, George Bennett, Tiffany Cromwell and more. From the Girona store – alongside locations in Nice, Abu Dhabi, Mexico City and Wilmslow – The Service Course hosts a large number of ‘casual’ rides, but last year it launched an annual weekend of gravel rides, coffee drinking and custom bike displays that it dubbed GiRodeo. I was quick to volunteer.
The first GiRodeo feels like
