Girona - Banyoles

I picked this ride for the simple reason that spring is the perfect time to be on a cycling holiday in Girona, and nothing proves it faster than rolling north out of town over the Pont del Dimoni. The rust-red steel arches swing overhead, the Ter slides past below, and that's the moment the city lets go of you. From there it's a short drag through Sarrià de Ter and up the little ridge at Sant Julià de Ramis, where the traffic thins out for good.

Once you're over the top the Pla de l'Estany opens up. Patchwork cereal fields, alfalfa, the odd paddock with horses standing right against the guardrail. Stone masies sit up on the low ridges like they've been there forever, and on a clear morning the Pyrenees are a blue smudge to the north. The tarmac on these GI- roads is the kind local pros use for a reason — smooth, quiet, and rolling just enough to keep the legs honest without ever turning into a proper climb.

The run-in to Banyoles is my favourite stretch. Pine-capped hills, verges crowded with poppies and wild mustard in April, the warm-hay smell you only get in Catalonia in spring. Then the road drops you at Llac de Banyoles, the biggest natural lake in Catalonia and the rowing venue from the '92 Barcelona Olympics. I usually roll a slow lap along the Passeig Darder and stop at one of the terraces with a view over the water — espresso, a bit of sun on the face, watch the rowers, and then clip back in.

The return leg is softer, more pastoral. You cut back through small villages on the Ter-side plains, past harvested golden fields butting up against still-green wheat, and eventually the Girona skyline and the cathedral reappear on the horizon. There's a bit of a sting in the last rollers if you've been pushing, but nothing that needs a plan — just settle in and spin it home.

Back in town the ritual writes itself. Cross the river, drop the bike, and walk to La Fabrica or Espresso Mafia in the old town for the flat white that everyone who's ever ridden out of Girona ends up ordering. 48 kilometres, just over 400 metres of climbing, and one of the most honest introductions to why riders keep coming back to this corner of Catalonia.