Trevor Macdonald: A cinematographer whose first proper bike was a gravel bike

Where he rides out of

Trevor grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the mountains are bigger and the roads emptier than they are here. He works as a cinematographer, focusing on documentary and commercial work, and now rides out of Poblenou in Barcelona. His first proper bike was a gravel bike, bought in March 2025. Everything he has learned about cycling since then, he has learned by riding. He describes himself, in his own words, as just a baby when it comes to cycling.

His Catalonia

Trevor’s home route starts in Barcelona and heads up toward the Vallès, then loops back into the city. 90 km, 1,200 m of elevation. He describes the terrain in his own words as champagne gravel pathways up to Castellar del Vallès, then increasingly technical, punchy climbs from there, a ride that carries several kinds of terrain in a single loop, which is most of the appeal. Gritline’s Serralada Loop also makes his short list of classics, for what it delivers so close to the city; he’d like to try the Montserrat Loop on gravel once the summer heat backs off.

For coffee, he goes to Abyss Coffee Roasters on Diagonal, close to his flat in Poblenou, plenty of space for cyclists, and offering the kind of rotating coffee program that stops a self-described coffee nerd in his tracks. Post-ride, on a good day: cañas on a terraza.

Asked when to come, he picks winter and fall. Less heat, less dust, and the drivetrain quietly grateful. His advice to visiting riders is practical: come prepared for dust, run a waxed chain, and take the technical trails when you can. The views tend to reward the harder terrain.

A ride that changed something

November 2025. A gravel ride organised by Velodrom from Barcelona to Girona. 140 km, 1,900 m of elevation. Two hours of frozen fingers because he had left his gloves at the flat, his fingers were, in his own summary, without enough dexterity to feel the shifters or move them with enough force to actually shift.

He calls it a lesson he won’t soon forget. It reads on the page as a small and unglamorous thing to have learned. Bring gloves. But it is also the kind of thing you can only learn by being cold enough for long enough. The first eighteen months of a cycling life produce a lot of these lessons. Trevor is candid about being early enough in the sport that most days include one.

The other lesson from the same period, from a different answer, is more portable. Underestimate your carb intake at your peril. Set a timer on the bike computer. Nobody enjoys bonking, and haribo gummies and an ice-cold Coca-Cola are, in his testimony, most of a working strategy.

I have found my closest friendships in a new place through bikes.

What riding gives him

What riding gives Trevor is a way to be outside. He is fortunate to like his work, he writes, but he firmly believes that having an outlet that puts you in nature is the key to happiness. Cycling, for him, is the best version of that outlet available. Vitamin D, views, and the low-friction way of being in the world that a good day on the bike delivers.

The other thing, the more specific thing, is friendship. He is direct about it: he has found his closest friendships in a new place through the bike. Barcelona is that place, and the friendships are, in his framing, most of the reason the move has worked. He’ll always be grateful for that.

His week has a rhythm around all of this. Pre-ride coffee at a café. Tunes on the way out, lately A Tribe Called Quest, sometimes Interpol. Post-ride cañas on a terraza. Not much needs to happen after that for it to have been a good day.

What’s next

Twelve months out, Trevor wants to ride 300 km in a single go. He has been following ultra cyclists, the ones who race the long, self-supported events, and the interest has moved from curiosity into intention. He is, at time of writing, eighteen months and change into being a cyclist. The 300 km will be the first step into a category most riders take years to consider.