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I was out riding my mountain bike when I received a message from my friend Carlos. “Do you want to go to Turkey in 10 days?” he asked. Surprised and curious, I replied, “Why?” He explained that he’d been invited to a race and could bring a friend. Knowing I rarely say no to these offers. The event? The UCI Gran Fondo World Series in Antalya, Turkey.

Ten days later, Carlos and I found ourselves at the airport, checking in our road bikes and flying to Istanbul and then to Antalya International Airport. We were warmly received by Uraz, our guide for the trip. Joining us were Max and Paris from the UK, Omar from Italy, Michael from Colombia, so we were a group of 6.

Three flights and almost 50 hours after leaving Barcelona airport, we landed at Palangkaraya airport on the island of Borneo for the third round of the UCI Eliminator World Cup.

I had been to Indonesia before, in 2018, when I was studying in Taipei. One of my best friends came to visit, and we spent 10 days around Indonesia. You can watch our trip here. However, everything felt really strange this time. It was the same as when I was competing in trials, but I barely knew anyone, and I had to convince myself to switch my mindset to competition…

After I retired from trials I thought I would never be competing at a world cup ever. However, this changed when I was at Vuelta Ibiza with Andreu, Irene and Amparo. Amparo told me there was an XCE World Cup in Barcelona, I’ve heard about XCE before but Amparo explain me how it works. 4 riders and 2 laps around a 45-1 minute circuit, the first two go through the next heat and the 3rd and 4th are eliminated, and I thought, why not? I have been training explosibity for all my life for trials, or maybe I did something good in trials because I was explosive, anyway, I always had that fast rush, that not lasted long…

Everything started in a dinner with my friends. Four friends of the group did an Ironamn 70.3 last year and they wouldn’t stop talking about it during the whole year, and we said it would be nice to do one all together. And by the end of October 2023, we were all already registered. We were excited at first, but the more close to the race weekend the more nervous I was. There was lots of things that were out of my control, the swimming, the transitions, the eating… There was a lot of uncertainty. The swim was okay for me, I swam a lot when I was a kid and I even played waterpolo for a couple of years, however, my first swim training I remembered thinking “Okay Pol, you should train more”. The bike part was the easiest for me, and to be hones I wasn’t event worried. And the run part wouldn’t let me sleep…

Even I am used to ride mountainbike, riding in a race is a completely different thing. This time I teamed up with one of my best friends, Andreu Miró, to do the 3 stage race Volta Eivissa. An XCM race around the island. We knew I was a little bit stronger than him, and that was okay, we always have lots of fun on the descents and I would help him on the flats and the climbs. Besides that, we didn’t know what to expect, we’ve never ridden with so many riders at the same time. At the day of the start we were 1.200 riders…

Although we already had high expectations for this trip, it exceeded them with flying colors. We were lucky with the weather, and everything went very smoothly, very easy, very practical.

After 23 hours of travel, passing through Tokyo, we arrived at Chitose Airport on the island of Hokkaido. Before landing, we could already see all the terraces and roofs of the buildings covered in snow. We started driving towards Niseko, a 2-hour journey in which, with every kilometer we covered, we saw more snow. It started snowing heavily about 35 km before reaching our destination and it didn’t stop until the next day. We stayed in a small hotel, next to the road, between the town of Niseko and the city of Kutchan. Just driving on roads where the asphalt was not visible was an adventure in itself.

Benidorm invited us to go see the CX World Cup that was held in the city on the 21st of January with “the Big Three” (Thomas Pidcock, Wout Van Aert, and Mathieu Van Der Poel), so the show was ensured. I talked with Alexandre to come with me, and he proposed to go cycling from Barcelona. At first, we laughed, but then we did a little bit of research to see how many kilometers that would be. We wanted a bit of adventure, so we decided to go by gravel through the backroads and lost gravel roads, and avoid, as much as possible, the urban areas. It turns out it was doable, but we encountered some problems…

At 7:30 on Sunday of September 3rd, Johnny and I found ourselves in Granada’s Plaza Rotary, watching as people gathered. Eyes met, each trying to discern the special modifications made to one another’s bicycles and the gear they carried. Although it wasn’t a race where cyclists burst into full-speed, there was an unmistakable tension in the air. The police led the way, weaving through city traffic, guiding the race through Granada’s center until we arrived at the Sacromonte Abbey…

It’s not just about the road rides or the distances we cover. It’s also about the shared moments of laughter, camaraderie, and the indescribable feeling that comes from being in sync with everyone who joins the plan. So simple, yet so profound, this is the essence of this road biking adventures.

TDB started with 5 friends and a cycling adventure and I got invited last year, the 3.0 version and I enjoyed so much I knew I couldn’t miss the 4.0 edition.

Every twist and turn of the road becomes an opportunity to bond. The joy of cycling together gives us life, infusing each ride with an electric energy that charges the very air we breathe

It is true that I have rode a gravel bike before but it was only for a couple of shootings, so, until this weekend I had never done proper gravel ride and even less within a 3 day gravel festival. So, pretty much everything was new for me. Spoiler: I loved it!

We had planned to go with Luca but a sudden change of plans made me go to Madrid Thursday and go by bus to Guadix Friday afternoon. We met there, we registered, took our numbers, the tracker and the welcome pack. We had some carbs for dinner and checked in in a cave stlyle appartment. Typical from Guadix. They carve the houses inside the rock so they can benefit from stable temperatures all year long. We prepared the bikes and everything we needed for Saturday’s race…

Pinarello was born from the passion of one man for racing. Giovanni Pinarello was recognized for winning the Maglia Nera* at the Giro d’Italia as a rider, but as a frame-builder, his name became associated with the Maglia Rosa and the Maillot Jaune, with the greatest champions of cycling. Pinarello has become the embodiment of success, leading the way while others follow, with some of the most memorable moments in cycling history occurring on a bike bearing his name…

Little did I know back in 2002, when I started riding trials with 9 years old, that this sport would took me so far and would teach me and show me that much. It started as a “something to do” on weekends and ended up shaping my life.

I learned a lot from trials and made me who I am today. I lived countless experiences that I would never thought I did, met a lot of cool and strange people and I even inspired someone to start riding trials that I eventually met. I thought that the day I decided stop riding trials would be a sad day but I realise I took everything I could from trials and I don’t regret anything I did, instead, I am super grateful of what I lived and super aware that I close a stage of my life when I feel I

Even after 5 years going to Val Thorens the first week of December, you don’t know what to expect, since its so early in the season and you don’t know what to expect. The last 5 years we have had almost everything from new snow every day and full of powder to sunny days and nothing else but the pists. This year we were very lucky. We went there from December 3rd to 8th, and some days before we were really excited looking at the snow reports. If everything they said was real we should expect more than 1.4m snow depth.

2020 it was a special year for everyone and it couldn’t be different for me. It was a year without competitions, and it was the first time since I started trials back in 2001 or 2002. So, after 18 straight years planing my life around trials competitions, last year was something new. I hang out with my friends at home, since it was not possible to travel for the pandemic. I can’t say it was a bad summer, since we did a lot of things within our country and I tried to enjoy it to the last minute…

I have been to the Basque Country a lot of times for trials competitions but only once with the enduro bikes. We went last summer with Andreu and Ernest, and we loved it so much that we wanted to come back this year too. This time we stayed in San Sebastian, at Alvaro’s apartment in the seafront of la Zurriola Beach. From there we moved around…

A few years ago there are more and more people who do backcountry ski and a couple of seasons ago my friends bought all the equipment and began to practise it in the Pyrenees. I saw the routes they did and the places they went and I wanted to try it. It seemed like a very different way of doing sports than I was used to. With the bike you almost always have to follow trails, tracks or trails, however with backcountry ski….

It has been a couple or three years that during the winter it always come a big storm. This year was Filomena. It was a huge extratropical cyclone that hit early January 2021 and it brought heavy snowfall higher than 60cm in some high areas…

The Spanish Trials team were required in La Nucia (Alicante, Spain) by Manuel Mateo, the national trials and BMX team manager, for a training camp. It’s part of the “Plan de Alto Rendimiento Deportivo”…

Land Rover Spain contacted me because they were preparing a campaign for the launch of the New Defender. A renewed version of the legendary Land Rover Defender but completely renewed. It has been produced for 67 continuous years and ended January 2016, and now we have the new version.

During two weeks Andreu Miró (one of my best friends) and I were looking at the weather forecast because we knew there was a huge storm coming and we wanted to ski in the powder that has been missing all the winter season.

January 1st, at 8:55pm I found myself waiting in front of the gate G13 in the termial 2 of the Barcelona Airport. I was about to catch a plane, a plane to Geneve (Switzeland🇨🇭). From there I took a bus to Chamonix. At 1:30pm I arrived to Chamonix Sud Bus Station. Andreu was there waiting for me. We were sleeping in a small hostel in the small town of Argentière (France 🇫🇷), 8 minutes drive from the bus station. We were there for 4 days full of ski.

The 2019 trials season ended after the UCI World Championships in China and its time to do other sports. I have been skiing since I was very young because my parents took us to the snow. My uncle had a small house in Sainte Léocadie, a small village next to Puigcerda, La Cerdanya, and we went there every weekend during the winter. Years later I exchanged my family for my friends for the ski trips. And, as always, I take the camera with me and we shoot some pictures and videos.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to make friends all over the world.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to travel worldwide.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to do stuff with your bike that everybody think its impossible and awesome.

Don’t start riding trials if your biggest competitor is also one of your best friends.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to share the best experiences of your life with your best friends.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to learn how to be able to come back after the worst injury or competition.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to learn about life.

Don’t start riding trials if you don’t want to do the coolest sport ever.

And, of course, all of these comes with a price. Endless hours of training and making some everyday sacrifices. Training in the gym, training with the bike, the trials bike, the mountain bike, the road bike. And sometimes the result won’t show all of this effort, because the day of the competition yo had a bad day, or you didn’t felt as good as you were while training the week before. This is what happened to me this year at the 2019 UCI World Championships…

The teams will have to face this challenge in the opposite direction, one team will leave Saint Jean de Luz walking and the other from Cap de Creus by bicycle. Both teams will be equipped with the latest TwoNav GPS: Trail 2, the new GPS for hiking/mountaineering and with a cycling version, Trail2 Bike.

The legendary venue of Val di Sole (Italy) hosted the second round of the UCI Trials World Cup 2019 the 24th and 25th of August. After one month since the last competition all the riders were ready to race. As always in this area, the you can not trust any weather forecast since it is always changing so the riders did not know what to expect, if a wet, slippery and muddy sections or dry and grippy sections.

The 2019 Spanish Championships were held in the city of Cartagena, at the south-east of the country. The organiser build a brand new trials park from scratch. It was made of rocks, concrete and logs.

The national Catalan Team travelled from Catalonia to Cartagena on Friday and they build the paddock as soon as they arrived. They trained in the warm up section afterwards, to check everything was good, the bike and the riders themselves.

The International Extreme Sports Festival (FISE) is an annual competition representing different action sports such as skating, bmx, skateboard, mountain bike, wakeboard, scooter and parkour. The event takes place each year in the city of Montpellier, on the side of the river Lez. It was created in 1997 and ever since it has only grown every year. In 2019 edition it had more than 70 competitions and 2.000 athletes. With more than 600.000 people it is considered the 3rd biggest sports event in France, just behind “Le Tour de France” and the tennis tournament Roland Garros.

Big news for Pol Tarrés. He is now ambassador for the basque brand Orbea. Orbea was founded in 1840, originally as a rifle and gun producer. 90 years later began designing and producing bikes. They are based in Mallabia, a little town in the Basque Country. Orbea bicycles has a huge range of bikes, from cycling to all mountain and have partnered with different teams in multiple disciplines because they have competition in their DNA.

The city of Barcelona was the place to be this past weekend. The first international competition of the season was held near the “Font Màgica de Montjuic” just below the MNAC, an imposing palace created for the International Exhibition of 1929. So there was no better place in Barcelona, people gathered there to see some of the best riders in the world competing for the trophy.

For the second year in a row the UCI Trials World Championships 2018 were held in the 5th biggest Chinese city, Chengdu, at Sichuan district. With more than 11 million inhabitants, Chengdu is the perfect place to hold an event of these dimensions. Pol commented that Chinese people are trials fans and last year was the first time they could meet and talk to their idols, the best trials riders of the world.

For the first time ever a Trials World Cup was held at the capital of Germany, Berlin. The fourth and final round was the last weekend ( 14 – 15 October ) at the Tempelhof airport, a very well known and iconic venue. The place really looked amazing, the organiser took care of every detail, the tape, the arrows and the decoration of the sections. As usually there was a water section that gives more spectation for the public and more pressure to the riders.

After a month without international competitions. The third round of the UCI Trials World Cup was held this past weekend in Antwerpen, Belgium. The unbeatable location of this world cup makes a different atmosphere live that most riders love. It is located in the “Grote Markt” of the city where there is always a lot of people walking that stay to see the show.

After the good results in the first round of the World Cup in Austria two weeks ago, the Spanish trial team (14 athletes) went to the city of Moudon (Switzerland) to compete at the European Championship 2018.

On Friday at 3:00 pm the Elite semifinals began, where only the top 8 qualified would go to the final. Tarrés did not start ver good and made an error in section 3 and finished with a total of 7 points. The sections were very easy, it was not allowed to do a slightest mistake to make it to the finals. Tarrés was tenth in the first round so he was out of the final.

This past weekend the first trial of the UCI Trials World Cup of 2018 was held in Vöcklabruck (Austria). It was the first international event of the season where the best riders in the world gave an awesome show. Pol Tarrés ( Scorpio-Vaude team ), did the fourth position, being his best result ever in a world cup.

Tarrés did not have to go through the qualifying phase since he is in the TOP10 of the world ranking, so he went straight to the semifinals. The semifinals are disputed by a total of 25 pilots, the best 15 of the qualifying phase plus the top 10 of the world ranking.