Officially, the Santa Vall is not a bike race, but a non-competitive bicycle outing. Unofficially, the Santa Vall is the Girona World Championships.

Let’s take a few steps back.

The Santa Vall is a two-day gravel stage race in Girona. It has become the season opener of the European gravel scene. If you’re a road fan, think Tour Down Under meets those pre-season training camps in Calpe.

It’s where new teams (and cabals), show their new kit, equipment, and test their early season form. It’s where we see prototype products and get the first taste of what new taste has come into the gravel world.

It’s a race that, like most gravel events, has rapidly grown in prominence in the past couple of years.

The event starts and finishes in Sant Gregori, a town just a few kilometres ride from Girona. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Girona is the go to place for pro racers. The roads are world class, the weather is good, and the community is tight. It turns out that Girona is arguably even better for gravel. The trails are plentiful, and absolutely insane to ride.

TL;DR, if you’re coming to Girona, maybe pack a pair of gravel tyres too.

Back to the race, well it’s not really a race but we’re calling it a race for arguments sake.

In 2024, the race had with a mass start uphill prologue. Yep, you read that correctly. I’ve never seen, or raced anything like it. It was all the right levels of carnage, and there was even an inflatable dinosaur on the side of the road. Admittedly, it’s a stage that suits me, but for the simple fun of it, I was disappointed not to see it on the agenda.

I digress.

The story of the Santa Vall isn’t really the race, but we have to talk about the race. Gravel has gotten faster, there are more former World Tour road pros, and MTB pros on the start line. Within five seconds of stage one stating we were sprinting full gas towards a pinch point. Spirit of gravel, what spirit of gravel? Hell this is a cyclocross race!!

Elbows out, my bunch racing skills are rusty after winter, but they quickly come back. I go into the climb in good position, race into the single track and then 5-minutes later BANG, I go down on the descent.

It’s my own fault, a silly crash. I dust myself down and ride through the groups. Smiling to friends along the way, catching up with old racers, and also stopping to help anyone who needs help with a repair. I cross the line slightly annoyed, but with a smile.

This past weekend was the launch of Castelli Spirit of Gravel - SOG. SOG is not a gravel team,  nor a collective. It’s officially a ‘cabal’. Effectively, it’s a group of riders racing independently who  have the backing of Castelli not just to race hard, but to do fun stuff too.

We’re not one to define what the spirit of gravel is. Want to race at the front? Great. Want to stop at all of the aid stations? Brilliant. All that matters that it’s people riding bikes and having fun. It’s not just the spirit of gravel, it’s the spirit of riding bikes - doing it for the love of it.

SOG has a group of riders that includes riders from all types of background. You have David Trimble, the founder and organiser of the Red Hook Crit Series, Nathan Haas who spent a decade in the World Tour and a whole load of others.

Other brands see gravel as a way of putting as many people on the podium as possible - don’t get us wrong we still want to win - but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Stage Two was equally as carnage. The start was slightly calmer, but still equally carnage. Castelli SOGgers are in good position to take the fight to the front of the race, and support at the back of the race too. I just make my way into the front group, slightly get dropped when the race goes crazy and then chase down on the descent again.

I crash on the descent. You read that right, two crashes in two days. I dusted myself off, and rode home. ‘Try again next time, Joe’, I thought to myself.

Ahead of me Castelli SOGgers were cracking on. There were great performances across the board from Ben Perry and Danni Shrosbree, but the real fun was to come off the bike.

Come six o’clock on Sunday evening, what seemed like the whole gravel scene descended into the Guava Bike Shop. We held a pop up party with the Spanish bike brand that two of our riders race for.

There was seemingly everyone there. From those that finished on the podium, to those that had Santa Vall as their first ever bike event, and the volunteers that helped support the race. It was a party, a celebration for the community.

Often whether races go wrong, I spend the evening feeling sorry for myself, you could say lonely. Instead, I spent the evening having a beer or two with a whole host of people from a whole host of different backgrounds. In true British fashion, I enjoyed taking the mick out of myself crashing, and had a good laugh at myself.

The reason SOG is so good, is because every rider is empowered to do what they want to do. I want to win the biggest races in the world, but when that doesn’t go to plan - and let me tell you often bike racing doesn’t go to plan - there’s a ‘team’ there to put an arm around you.

Santa Vall is a great non-competitive bicycle outing. Let’s be honest, at the front of the race, it’s a race. At the back, it’s a good time. Off the bike, it’s a great time.

FOOTNOTES
This article is written by Joe Laverick.
Joe is a member of Castelli SOG.
Photos: Dan Hutchinson