You will have seen plenty of images showing professional male and female gravel riders sprinting across the finish line the Traka, one of Europe’s premier gravel events. They would have been wearing skinsuits and aero helmets, been riding the fastest bikes on the market, with fuelling strategies and pacing plans nailed months in advance. What you might not know, however, is that these photos don’t paint the full picture of the event in Spain.
Every year, thousands of amateur riders travel to Girona too in order to complete one of the three distances that the Traka offers. Around a fifth of those cyclists are women – a number that is growing each year. While there has been an increase in female participants at gravel events globally in recent times, there is still work to be done. Initiatives and groups have been set up all around the event to ensure the trend continues in an upward trajectory, namely the Traka Force, a programme created to support and empower women to participate in the Traka.
At the forefront of this project is Mayalen Noriega, a former professional cyclist and tandem pilot who won a silver medal in the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Born in Mexico City, Noriega’s own experiences with sport have motivated her to ensure that she is part of battling for a more equal future in cycling.
“I could always see the difference between how encouraged girls and boys were to do sport growing up, and I’ve been fighting for equality when I was racing as part of the Spanish Federation,” she explains. “When I started racing gravel, Gerard [Freixes, organiser of the Traka] asked me for advice on how to get more women involved.
“We came up with this idea of the Traka Force because there are still a lot of women missing from the start line. There are 5000 participants and only 800 are women, so it’s not a big percentage. We started our WhatsApp group, did webinars. I think sometimes females need more encouragement or think that the Traka is too professional, but it’s just a party and we’re supporting each other.”
Noriega explains she has hosted workshops on how to break down barriers and dispel fear and negative thoughts about racing. She also believes that hosting technique classes and organised ride-outs helps to create a sense of togetherness and comfort: “This year was our learning curve and we have been joining forces with other brands to do more and more in the future.”
Major componentry brand, SRAM, has been an integral part of hosting events that encourage networking and meeting other female cyclists. They ran a workshop this year with leading SRAM Race Technician, Anna Greetis, to teach bike maintenance – something that Noriega thinks can be a barrier to entry for some cyclists who feel concerned about being stranded during a race if they have a mechanical problem.
SRAM also supports female-focused groups such as The W Collective and GRL PCK, the latter a group of women based out of Hamburg, Germany. Headed up by Laura Klaus, the GRL PCK travels to gravel events as a group with the plan to ride for fun and enjoyment, rather than with a sole focus on performance.
“We started it almost ten years ago now because we all used to ride with guys and we just felt like we were always trying to survive in a crazy fast slipstream,” Klaus explains. “One day we realised that we could also do super long rides but at our own pace, having fun and we really enjoyed it. Suddenly people who had never ridden 100-kilometres felt like they were able to do it. We try to bring this same sort of spirit to events like the Traka.”
Klaus says that she believes gravel to be a more welcoming and inclusive discipline than road racing: “It’s just a different vibe. Road riding can be a bit more intimidating as you have to rely on finding a good group whereas in gravel it can be solo or a bit more chilled. We’re trying to do the same as we do in gravel on the road, but I think it’s still missing a bit on the road and that’s a big business opportunity for brands too.”
One thing that Klaus flags as an important issue when it comes to women entering the Traka is how quickly the event sells out each year. Often, spaces fill up in less than a few hours, meaning those who want to compete need to make a fast choice on whether to enter.
“Everyone wants to come here and it’s an amazing space, I think by putting tickets aside specifically for women it would make a big difference. I think women tend to be a bit slower in decision making due to factors like family life and perhaps they need to finish a winter of training to see if they feel like they want to race. Having an opportunity to get a ticket at a later date would help,” the German woman argues.
Noriega points out that the Traka organisers are working on a solution to this whereby any woman who enters late is put to the top of the waitlist so that they get an immediate spot when one comes available: “Any woman who gets on the waiting list, we accept them,” she says.
Both Klaus and Noriega agree that friendship and community are integral to making everyone feel welcome at events like the Traka. Approaching long-distance challenges can be daunting alone, so groups that encourage shared experiences provide a crucial pathway to taking part: “Here we have the ‘Girona Gravel Girls’ too which started with just seven friends and now it is 370 women in a WhatsApp group and they do a ride together once a month. One by one, we can all do something. Go for a ride, go for your friends and help each other,” Noriega says.
Klaus recalls her Traka experience in 2025 as the perfect example of how to approach a unique event in which there are such varied experience levels.
“An initiative we did last year was the ‘GRL PCK grupetto’ so you could just join us at the start line, we did a little meet-up and said hi, then just started riding together,” she says. “There were some girls who felt good and went to ride a bit faster to do their own pace, but there were others who didn’t feel they could ride 100-kilometres on their own.
"It was so nice to see them all coming together and we made it really fun. We stopped at climbs to wait for each other and just thought of it as a long ride. We stopped at feed zones, took photos. It’s so cool to see the faster women doing their thing and going ahead, but we try to create a space for everyone.”
Creating a space for everyone as the Traka grows every year will inevitably become more and more of a challenge. The stakes are extremely high for those racing at the front, but the event is still keen to retain its community-focused identity and ensure riders of every gender, age and ability feel welcome. Groups like the GRL PCK and projects such as the Traka Force are an encouraging sign that as well as becoming such a well-respected event at the elite level, the event is maintaining the fun, friendly, party-atmosphere it was founded on. There is still a way to go to achieve gender parity in entrants, but there are plenty of people passionate about making it happen.
