Mauricio

@thetraka 360 was the event I was looking for the most on this trip cuz of the champagne gravel and being able to draft aka “chupar rueda” (one of my specialities 🤷🏻).

With the crazy weather before the event it turned into a wild race, much different from what I envisioned 😎. Shitloads of mud, knee high puddles, technical turns, and soo many people made the course epic.

This was the longest one day-er event I’ve done, I needed to pace myself but finding the right group was also the priority ✊

The first 10km were hectic but then I found myself riding for 100kms with a motivated group, including some familiar faces like @twanaltorf who raced @transcordilleras and pro rider @sarahsturmy, this was def one of my highlights but the pace was always on the limit for me. I considered letting them go on a few occasions but I was having too much fun in such esteemed company, so I sticked with them.

Just before the first aid station @rob_britton passed us like a rocket 🚀 (he had some mechanicals). I gave him my loudest “VAMOS ROB” I could get out of my collapsing lungs. He was on beast mode so didn’t even flinched 😅. As he went by the group got over exited and tried to follow (in the end only @pstetina 👑 was able to ride at that pace. Legends💪). Sadly for me as I was already on the limit I got dropped so had no choice than to wait for the group behind.

The rest of the race I spent trying to stay motivated and choking down as much food and gels as I could 😳. It felt like eternity 🥵. Big thanks to @bigtallwayne for helping me with my bike- it was flawless and I had zero mechanicals. @opencycle

Traka is an amazing event and Girona might be the best place on earth to be a cyclist… after el Retiro City off course 🇨🇴.

I love pinning a number and traveling, this time it was a lot of fun to share the experience with cool people. Thx for the memories and look forward to many more gravel destination races. Now time to go home to be with the family 🐣🐒

Super happy with the result. P87th / 10th Master40 / 14:02hhmm / avg 25.6km/hr / 1st Latino 🥇🏆