Girona on wheels: More and -even- better in its seventh edition!

Once again, the starting point is the Fontajau Pavillion in Girona city, and after getting up early in the morning and enjoying a nutritious breakfast provided by the organisation, the 700 participants set off well-equipped to enjoy around 550 km of the best roads in Girona.

Crom Ride – Girona, 6th July 2023

The Crom Ride has a maxim: “The Crom Ride Girona is not an endurance challenge or a mass event, but an opportunity to enjoy each and every one of the selected routes in the province of Girona for motorcycling”. The route has given us the most important thing for a motorcyclist, whatever his type of bike, the best ratio of “smiles per kilometre”.

Curves, curves and more curves, avoiding boring and crowded connecting stretches, all perfectly chosen to give the motorcyclist maximum riding pleasure. On Saturday morning, Crom Ride Girona 2023 headed straight for Espinelves, passing through such iconic routes as Brunyola, Cladells, la Trona, Alpens, Montgrony, la Creueta, with a visit to the Monastery of Ripoll. At this point we were already in Cerdanya, after descending the Toses col, to enter Catalonia North through the oldest pharmacy in Europe in Llívia, Estavar, climbing Pimorens, Pas de la Casa, passing through Ordino until we reached the Motocard shop in Santa Coloma, Andorra. Once again, not only were the roads excellent for motorcycling: the high mountain roads and the view of Cerdanya from the north, or the entrance to the Pyrenees via Envalira, made it possible to enjoy landscapes unknown to many.

It was a good preview of what was to come: Cerdanya again, now from the south and in a relaxing break from so many bends, the climb to La Molina, again the Collada – the magnificent Catalan Tourist Trophy, 40 km of one of the best routes in the world to enjoy fully on a motorcycle – to Ribes de Freser and back to Girona through Vallfogona, Olot and Vall d’en Bas.

Friday 30 June, the party begins!

On the eve of the race, participants will find a lively village set up in the spacious grounds of Fontajau. Year after year, riders find that “Girona is worth a dinner” and a night in a nearby hotel to start the Saturday in top shape.

In addition to a full bar service, the paddock at Fontajau hosts an extensive exhibition and supervised testing of models from Aprilia with its new Tuareg, Guzzi, Honda, Macbor, Triumph, Royal Enfield, Suzuki, QJ, CF Moto, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati and many more…

Before a ride like Crom Ride, it is important to have everything planned. In the village, Metzeler was on hand to help with maintenance and tyre changes, Galfer with brake advice, Ceroil Motorex with lubrication services and, for most motorcyclists, Shad, the best way to equip your bike, VectorNote to enter the world of roadbooks or simply install the Atlantis app to follow the route. Wünderlich was also present with accessories for BMW and Ducati. But it’s not all about the bike: the tents of Motocard, Poiexxis, HJC and Tecnimoto also had equipment for motorcyclists, including airbags for hire.

Also, with Pere Arnella in everyone’s mind, the Catalan Traffic Service, in collaboration with Anesdor, offered its supervised 3.0 training courses on safety and driving. Ah, and as always – this time in Llívia – we enjoyed Shoei’s mobile windscreen cleaning service… and later found professionally taken photos of each rider’s route on www.fotomotera.com.

The “Fantastic Route” through Girona

The Crom Ride Girona is non-competitive, and the organisation always appeals to “seny” -a Catalan word for wisdom-, so we spent almost twelve hours on the bike, even with the necessary stops. However, the Crom doesn’t feel long: the design of the different stages, in collaboration with the Costa Brava and Pyrenees Tourism Board, has set moderate but enjoyable average distances, allowing participants to recharge their batteries and tackle the routes with the best moto spirit.

This seventh edition of Crom Ride also appears on the calendar as the fourth route registered in the first edition of the “Trofeu Català de Mototurisme”, organised by the Catalan Motorcycle Federation. Crom Ride Girona 2023 had more than thirty riders following this non-competitive but well contested moto tourism championship, that’s for sure!

The Crom Ride is not only a route with an excellent layout and a great atmosphere: this year we had great weather on Saturday (we passed Envalira with only 12 degrees!), and participants and companions could recharge their batteries after the route and meet up with fellow adventurers over a refreshing dinner. The icing on the cake was the well-deserved gift for all finishers: an exclusive Crom Ride thermal shirt to add to the already very complete welcome pack, which also included a Crom Ride 2023 summer t-shirt, a neck warmer, exclusive promotions, keyrings, pens, and stickers.

The 2024 edition is already underway, the countdown is on!