The Radavist

More than just a long weekend of some of the finest people, food, and grav grav Europe has to offer, the ENVE and The Service Course GiRodeo is a small bike show hosted by Girona’s best bike shop. Originally made famous by its Gustave Eiffel bridge and later the TV series Game Of Thrones, Girona is arguably being made more famous as a cycling destination today.

If Gustave Eiffel’s Pont de les Peixateries Velles bridge was an architectural warmup, demonstrating the strength of steel before going full Eiffel Tower in Paris, then this year’s Ruben of Madrid-based Rizzo went full Eiffel Tower, with four super interesting bikes of their own. Petor continues his coverage of the 2023 GiRodeo by showcasing the huge leap forward in terms of skills, craftsmanship, and technique from the bikes he saw last year…

Aside from pristine days of riding, the GiRodeo was also a semi-nomadic bike show. The Service Course has long-term collaborative relationships with a number of builders, working together to pair builders and customers appropriately. I say “semi-nomadic” because the majority of builders rode their bikes, but also because the bikes that were not being ridden magically popped up in restaurants and breweries or wherever else events were held as part of the show. This is a rundown of my favorite bikes, many of which were part of the GiRodeo, and others were part of The Service Course’s furniture.

Four hours into the drive from London to Girona, I began to question my life choices in having decided to drive rather than fly. Eight hours down the road—winding through the mountains with the cruise control set to 140kph with lunatic focus on the pool of tungsten light illuminating a patch of road ahead—I began to see its value. I needed this focus. High beam, dip beam, high beam, dip beam. The solo drive that started off listening to audiobook recommendations from Josh Weinberg had descended into a white knuckle ride against the clock to beat the dawn and shut myself in a dark hotel room to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before my first GiRodeo. It would be, in fact, everyone’s first GiRodeo. The inaugural edition of ENVE and The Service Course’s collaborative framebuilder roundup gravel extravaganza G-Rodeo, but in Girona. The GiRodeo.