The Faces of the Traka

With Traka now firmly in the rear-view mirror and Unbound ticked off, now feels like the perfect time for a little look back.

Ayesha McGowan of The Black Foxes

As I sat on the side-lines of this years Traka, the biggest gravel race in Europe, I had access to a unique perspective. Observer, commentator and documentor, all were true that weekened and though I was gutted not be able to ride as planned, I go a lot out of it.

As somebody involved in this space, this space being diversity in cycling, I've gotten used to picking our faces in a crowd, noting their uniqueness, pondering their stories and also in many cases, noting their absense. Traka was no different.

Alex and Beau long long-term contributors to CCC

Traka, being the biggest gravel race in Europe and attracting 5000 competitors and many more spectators, should be a melting pot for diverse faces in cycling, travelling from all over the world to race and be part of cycling culture in Girona that week.

But you won't be surprised to learn that it wasn't. Of all the people that flocked to Girona, I would count diverse faces in the double figures only and at the lower end of that to boot. I didn't keep an exact count, but I did try to grab as many little portraits as I could during the week to look back on as a reference point.

Next year, I'd love to see this improve. I'd love to work with the organisers to make this better and I would like to the biggest gravel race in Europe get even bigger, but with more diverse faces on the start line.

Quoc Pham, pensive on the start line

This all sounds hugely negative, let me stress that is isn't. Traka remains one of the better examples of diversity in cycling, which shows you just how far we have to go. It's also worth noting that the gender split at Traka, is exceptional, at least from where I observed the festival and the racing. In many parts of the world, this alone is a tough enough challenge but here, Klassmark and Gerard have done amazingly well. It mustn't be forgotten that diversity IS gender, but as I'm always pushing, it's also a myriad of other things and diversity cannot be simplified into just male and female.

Anto Butty is enjoying a well-earned beer post Traka 100

I hope you enjoy this little snapshop into Traka week, from my perspective only, a little window into cycling culture as it stands. These were shot on my Fujifilm XS10, my Ricoh GR3 or my phone, in case you were interested.