Nearly 60,000 visitors filled the festival site for three intense days of racing, product presentations, bike testing and activities for all ages
The sixth edition of the Sea Otter Europe Costa Brava-Girona Bike Show closed its doors today, far exceeding the organisers’ forecasts, with more than 57,000 visitors visiting the festival over the three days. An event that all its protagonists (exhibitors, cyclists, visitors, sponsors) agree in describing as the great European meeting point between the cycling industry with its end users and all the fans of this sport. The city, the Girona area and the Costa Brava also greatly value the economic impact of Sea Otter Europe, which has boosted accommodation bookings and filled the streets, shops and restaurants of the area with people.
It has been an exceptional weekend for the region, which has been saturated with cycling thanks to the large number of visitors, exhibitors from all over the world and a full calendar of events of all types, in an edition of Sea Otter Europe that has put the focus on urban mobility.
The expansion of the expo area has made it possible to comfortably cope with the 30% growth of exhibitor brands, with a total of 350 international companies that have displayed their products at more than 220 stands of bicycles, electric bikes, accessories and technology applied to cycling.
The response to the competitive calendar was also a strong one, with more than 4,000 cyclists taking part in the fifteen races that were organised, for amateurs and for world champions, Olympic medallists and elite athletes, both male and female, in all kinds of cycling.
And once again this year, the Demobike has proved to be one of the most attractive items of Sea Otter Europe. The 30 participating brands had all the models on offer on several occasions, with more than 3,000 trips to the circuits designed for this purpose. The new urban routes created this year have also made it possible to see many models of family and urban bikes around the festival and in the streets of the centre of Girona.
This brings to a close the most popular edition of this cycling festival, which is already working on the next one, to be held again in Girona and the Costa Brava from 22 to 24 September 2023.
Competitions at the highest level
Early in the morning, Sea Otter Europe’s cycling tour, the Continental Ciclobrava, kicked off with 1,200 participants and three distances of 70, 100 and 140 km. All of them pass along some of the most beautiful roads in inland Girona and the Costa Brava.
Next, the gravel took centre stage with the Girona Gravel Ride, the ideal way to explore the most picturesque scenery of the Girona area. A former cyclist of the stature of Melcior Mauri did not want to miss this beautiful race.
At midday, it was time for the most eagerly awaited moment, the elite men’s race of the Massi Continental Super Cup, the last race of the 2022 Championship. This is one of the most prestigious XCO world championships due to the amount of UCI points at stake and the high level of the participants.
Today was no exception with the presence of such spectacular names as the XCO world runner-up David Valero (BH Templo Cafés), the Frenchman Victor Koretzky (B&B hotels), Simon Andreassen (Cannondale) and Jofre Cullell (Primaflor-Mondraker) in addition to the entire Massi team, among many others. A grid worthy of a World Cup.
The winner was Koretzky. The Frenchman broke away in the middle of the race and managed to build up a big lead over the chasing pack until the end. A few seconds later, Danish rider Andreassen and Cullell, in that order, joined the sprint.
This was the end of a day of cycling of the highest level, a pure mountain bike spectacle that put the finishing touch to another successful edition of Sea Otter Europe in Girona.
Girona, 25 September 2022
