Dust, Noise & Girona
Notes from The Traka 2026
During The Traka, Girona stops behaving like a city.
For a few days, everything revolves around bicycles.
Terraces crowded from early morning. Dust-covered bikes leaning against every possible wall. Riders moving through the city with empty legs and sun-marked skin. Team cars, cameras and conversations constantly crossing paths between streets, checkpoints and finish lines.
Riders and mechanics adjusting bikes in parking lots, sidewalks and every improvised corner of the city.
More than a race, The Traka has become a global meeting point for contemporary cycling culture.
Almost 5,000 participants.
More than 70 nationalities.
Professional athletes, amateurs, brands, photographers, designers and cycling communities sharing the same atmosphere for a few days.
And that is probably part of what makes The Traka different.
This year, ACW travelled to Girona with a small crew arriving from Galicia.
Three riders.
Three identical prototypes from Angel Cycle Works.
And one very simple idea: to experience the event from the inside, without too many expectations.
Among participants, friends and riders we also started spotting several ACW GAMMA builds making their first appearance at this year’s Traka.
The days leading up to the race became an important part of the experience itself.
Shared kilometres around Girona.
Conversations with people arriving from all over the world.
Improvised presentations between bicycles, crowded terraces and the constant noise surrounding the event.
Riders from the 360 and 560 arrived completely destroyed at the main hub while others were only beginning to prepare their bikes for the following day.
At The Traka, the line between race, festival and cycling gathering became more blurred than ever.
This year’s race felt especially hard.
Not only because of the distance or elevation gain, but because of the pace.
Everything happened fast.
Groups exploded very early.
Mistakes became expensive.
And fatigue appeared sooner than expected.
Especially on the longer distances, the physical toll became visible at every arrival. Riders completely exhausted after spending hours — or even days — on the bike.
And even so, the overall atmosphere in Girona remained surprisingly positive.
Exhausted faces.
Dust everywhere.
But also cold beers, music, overlapping conversations and people already talking about next year’s edition.
Beyond the race itself, some of the most interesting moments happened outside the course.
The area around Fontajau once again became the centre of the global gravel scene for a few days.
Prototypes appearing discreetly between group rides, terraces and bicycles leaning against every corner of the city.
Unexpected builds.
Designers, athletes and brands naturally mixing together in the same spaces.
One of the nights ended inside a packed little bar where Taylor Phinney was DJing while riders, photographers, founders and athletes — still intoxicated by dust and kilometres — shared beers, stories and that difficult-to-explain euphoria that remains after a race like this.
Small scenes like that probably explain The Traka better than any result sheet ever could.
Because The Traka is no longer only about competition.
It has become a temporary city built around movement, bicycles and a shared obsession with contemporary cycling culture.
And for a few days every year, Girona seems to become the centre of all of it.
The Traka 2026 also became the first real introduction for several new GAMMA builds moving through Girona during race week.
Dust, distance, speed and long days exactly where the bike was meant to be.
