Tyre pressures checked and a couple of ride snacks stored in your jersey pocket, you place a full bidon in its cage. With the first tensioning of muscles timed to the starting beep of your GPS headset, the blur of the road passing under your front wheel confirms a sense of forward motion as you escape the constraints of a busy life for an hour or two.

Alina Jäger is a writer, photographer and free-spirited cyclist from Koblenz, Germany. She moved to Girona, Spain, in December 2021 and has been immersed in the city’s cycling culture and community ever since. Alina says there’s no end to the opportunities for riding around the capital of cycling –roads, hills, flats, coast, mountain forest. “I even somehow find myself on really technical mountain biking trails” she laughs, “then try and quickly find my way off! There really is something for everyone”.

Ever heard of ultra-cycling? Ever done it? I just finished my first ultra-cycling experience, Granguanche Audax Gravel, a 700 km and +16,000 m elevation race across the Canary Islands.