2021: A Massive Year for Eat Sleep Cycle

If we thought 2020 (which included the cancellation of international travel) was a big year for Eat Sleep Cycle (primarily a travel business back then), 2021 has made it look like a tiny little stepping stone on the way to great things.

This year has been incredibly challenging & extremely satisfying all at the same time. 

Thank you!

We would like to take the opportunity to look back at 2021 and thank all of our customers, our staff, our families, the local government and tourism bodies and anybody else who has supported Eat Sleep Cycle this year. It is impossible to mention you all but you know who you are. We owe you big time!

Recap of our plan

We approached 2021 as a year in which we could grow our retail business and enjoy the return of international travel. There was so much uncertainty around travel so we decided to focus on developing our retail business. That plan included bringing in new talent to our team and collaborating with new exciting brands. That was the plan anyway, so how did it work out?!

60% recovery of our tours business in Autumn

Of course nobody knew how COVID would continue to affect travel, even through the uncertainty we achieved a 60% recovery of our European tours over the Autumn period. We delivered tours in Girona, Mallorca, South Spain, the French Alps, Italian Dolomites & Morroco. Cycling experiences have continued to be the core of our business. We were so happy to welcome guests back that we had not seen for one or 2 years.

270% increase in our retail business

Of course we benefited somewhat from the COVID cycling boom, but also our focus on catering for our local market and global market simultaneously via our online shop really worked out.

We took on new brands, particularly growing our new bike stock, including Giant, De Rosa and Kona. We also started working with some beautiful boutique brands like Moots, No.22 & custom steel frame builder RS Cycles.

People are constantly suprised at how we managed to have a steady supply of bikes throughout the year – check them out here!

Becoming Girona’s No.1 Bike Hire Centre

With our shop at full capacity serving our local customers we knew we needed more space to continue offering high quality bike rental. Enter our Bike Rental Centre, located just next door to the shop. In Autumn we enjoyed our first bike rental season since the 2019 lockdowns, with customers testing our our Ridley Fenix SLiC’s, Basso Palta’s & extra special demo bikes too.

We’re in the middle of building a seriously nice fleet for 2022 – alongside our favourite Ridley’s & Basso’s we’re adding Colnago to our bike rental offer. Check out our 2022 bike hire fleet.

Putting the Eat into Eat Sleep Cycle

A huge project for us this year was to open our very own Cafè Restaurant. We signed the contract in March, started our crowdfunding campaign in April, started the construction project in May & opened on the 31st July for a whirlwind summer. 

The cafe restaurant and bike hire center really established Eat Sleep Cycle as the Girona cycling destination. If you haven’t seen the set-up yet you must visit our little cycling heaven corner of Girona in 2022!

Thank you to our awesome team!

We were grateful to grow our team once again in 2021. A big welcome to our new café team – Bram, Massimo, Ariadna, Ingrid, Alma & Ferran. Welcome to Raul, Manuel & Jose Luis to team Finance, Cristina to Tours & Oscar, Mike & Mateu to the shop. A huge welcome also to Maribel, our cleaner who does so much more! Here we all are having fun this December:

What’s Store for 2022?

2022 will see the return of our cycling tours business to almost 2019 levels and we will operate tours in all of our existing locations and roll out our first departures in Portugal & Slovenia.

Our cycling Hub in Girona will be thriving through the full season and our terrace will be full of happy cyclists. We will organise many more free social rides for local people and visiting cyclists alike.

We’re not planning big growth in retail, more stabilising and consolidating our offer & improving the quality of everything we do in this area. We will focus more on sustainability and developing the skills of every one of our team.

Of course we will all enjoy some incredible bike rides and we hope you do too!

Ride with Eat Sleep Cycle in 2022!

As soon as you’re ready to travel we would love to cycle with you! Give us a call now on +34 972 754 301 or contact us online for more info!

P.S. Enjoyed this blog? Why not sign up to receive notifications every time we post and get regular updates on our latest tours