Gritliner Spotlight Series Issue 04 - Coen Hagens

A Dutch gravel rider who confidently runs 55mm tires

Coen grew up in Amersfoort, came to gravel through five years of road cycling, always with a cyclocross itch, and this year finished the Traka 360 on the day everything held. He builds his own wheels and runs 55mm tires. He thinks winter is the best season in Catalonia, and he has good reasons.

Where he rides out of

Coen Hagens rides out of Barcelona and Amsterdam, a dual base that shapes what a "home route" even means. He grew up in Amersfoort, in the middle of the Netherlands, and came to gravel after five years on the road bike. There was always a cyclocross itch, he says, before the terrain caught up with the intention. He builds his own wheels, runs bigger tires than most and treats mechanical knowledge as a form of freedom.

His Catalonia

His home route in Barcelona takes him north-west into Serralada, Garraf and Collserola, the three natural parks stitched together off the back door of the city. Pressed to name the single loop he'd point a visiting friend at, he chooses Gritline's Garraf to Foix. Perfect for the scenery, he writes, and for the combination of paths, gravel roads and old tarmac. He is not the first Gritliner to name it. He may not be the last.

For a food stop after a long ride he goes to Compa in Barcelona for a fresh Italian focaccia. His advice to anyone visiting is direct and useful: stay off the asphalt. It gets better on the paths and tracks, and Catalonia rewards riders who make that call quickly.

Asked about seasons, he picks the one most riders skip. Winter in Catalonia is amazing, he writes - bring a jacket and enjoy the cool temperatures. Coming from a country where winter riding means overshoes, a rain jacket, and the good sense to occasionally wonder if you should be inside, this is not a throwaway line. It is a proper piece of local intelligence from a rider who has, quite literally, ridden through worse.

A ride that changed something

The Traka 320, the flagship distance of the Girona event, and one of the longest single-day gravel days on the calendar. He rode it this year, he writes, and it went well. He stuck to his pace and his plan.

That is not the shape of most Traka stories. Traka stories tend to be built around the moment something went wrong: the flat that wouldn't seal, the night section that dragged, the mid-race decision to keep going. Coen's is built around the moment nothing did. The fuelling held, the pacing held, the head held, and the ride opened rather than closed on him.

He describes the day, in his own summary, as an awesome day out. In Traka 320 finishers, this is a genre of understatement.

Bigger is better.

What gravel gives him

His answer to the classic question about what gravel gives him is one line: he needs the time away to clear his head, and the riding is almost like meditation. He does not elaborate.

What he does elaborate on is the bike. He builds his own wheels. He does his own maintenance. He switched from 45mm tires to 55mm with wider rims to match. Bigger is better, in his summary. The extra volume makes a real difference and, contrary to what road-brained cyclists tell you, is not much slower.

The wheels and the tires are not, in his framing, a subject on their own. They are the practical expression of a broader point: the more you know about the bike, the freer you are to ride the bike wherever you want. The mechanical side is the meditation side, too.

What's next

Coen just took another crack at the Green Divide in the Netherlands, this time aiming at a quicker time than last. He has The Capitals - a catalan ultra running from Barcelona to Tarragona, Lleida and Girona - pencilled in for next year, when the calendar allows. What the two have in common is what he already knows from the Traka 320: long days, planned properly, are less about surviving the distance than about deciding how you want to spend it.