If last week Lloret de Mar‘s sports facilities were at full capacity, with more than 13,000 sportspeople taking part in various tournaments and sporting events in football, basketball, handball and athletics, this weekend Lloret de Mar becomes the epicentre of outdoor sports tourism with two events that highlight the natural environment and combine the destination’s sea and mountain landscapes: the Gran Fondo Lloret Costa Brava and the Lloret Trail.
The fifth edition of the Gran Fondo Lloret Costa Brava cyclotourism race is back on Sunday 16 April with 800 participants. This year there has been an increase in international and non-Catalan participants, with 14% of the total number of international participants (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium) and 17% from outside Catalonia (especially Valencia and Zaragoza). The race offers two circular routes and two distances that adapt to different levels of cyclists: a 90 km distance that will start and return to Lloret passing through Llagostera, Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Tossa, returning along the main road of the area, with a cumulative drop of 1.400 m; and the grand fondo of 160 km, with a much more demanding route, which will pass through Alt de Grau, Llagostera, Els Àngels, Coll de la Ganga, Calonge, Romanyà de la Selva, Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Mas Carbotí with a cumulative height gain of more than 2,700 m. The start, finish and post-race services will be located on Passeig Jacint Verdaguer in Lloret de Mar.
On the same day, trail runners will be able to enjoy a new edition of the Lloret Trail, which has more than 700 entries from over 12 different nationalities, will also offer two routes (16 and 7 kilometres) and will be the Spanish championship in different categories. The race will have two starts: in the 16 km race, one for federated participants in the Spanish Championship of Mountain Running-Trail Running Absolut, U-23 and Master up to M65 and another drawer for the rest of the participants of this distance and, as for the 7 km race, one start for federated participants in the Championship of Mountain Running and Promotion U-20, U-18 and Master +70, and the popular open. In addition, the International Petanque Tournament is also taking place in Lloret these days, with over 400 participants from France and Belgium who remain faithful to the destination year after year.
The Mayor of Lloret, Albert Robert, stresses that “one of the strategies that we have promoted in recent years in the field of sports tourism is our commitment to events in the natural environment that allow us to showcase our potential in sporting activities such as cycling and running, with very good participation figures”.
The town currently has 17 specialised cycling accommodations and 11 recommended road cycling routes and 6 mountain bike routes, which can be consulted on the specific website www.lloretcycling.com, on platforms such as Wikiloc and Strava, on printed maps available at the tourist offices or on the interactive map platform: maps.lloretdemar.org.
