Welcome to Sardinia! Cagliari airport sits just minutes from our headquarters. We wait you here so that our team will help you fine-tune your bike fit. We'll then move you to Cagliari, where you will have plenty of time to enjoy an aperitivo, and savor a Sardinian dinner at one of the many great restaurants in the old town.

Cappuccino, croissant, a team photo with the SardiniaCycling crew, and we leave the Maglia Nera Café behind: the gravel adventure begins. The first kilometers glide along cycle paths that take you safely out of the city, through Mediterranean scrub, olive groves and vineyards, all the way to the wheat fields of the Trexenta, the agricultural heart of Sardinia.

This stage is all about the dirt: almost 70% of its 68 km is gravel. The elevation gain stays well under control at around 1,000 m, in a constant up-and-down where you climb just a little more than you descend, until you reach Mandas at about 450 m above sea level.

Surrounded by wheat fields and olive groves, Mandas holds some small treasures, such as the former Convent of San Francisco, which once hosted the writer D.H. Lawrence. As you wander its streets, look out for the traditional courtyard houses with huge wooden portals, built from ladiri, the mud-and-straw bricks typical of southern Sardinia. A stage that tells of age-old traditions, authentic rural landscapes and the flavors of the Sardinian land.

There is so much to say about this stage and so little space! So let's stick to the highlights, taking for granted that every single kilometer is spectacular. The first is the small artificial lake of Is Barroccus, just after Isili, with its little island in the middle crowned by the chapel of San Sebastiano: a photo that is worth the whole stage on its own. But it is only the prelude.

From here you enter a spectacular gravel greenway that follows the route of the old narrow-gauge railway and takes you to Gesturi, a small medieval village that is perfect for a quick coffee break.

Gesturi is the gateway to one of the most iconic places on the island, the Giara di Gesturi: a plateau that is a world of its own, with a truly unique environment. The stars of the show are the Giara horses, a breed that lives wild and free on this plateau and amazes first-time visitors and seasoned regulars alike. They make the perfect subject for photos with cyclists in the background, which only emphasize their miniature size.

Crossing the Giara and rolling down from the plateau is pure fun, with views stretching all the way to the city we started from. A few more kilometers and you reach Tuili, a very ancient farming town with a charming historic center to explore before a hearty traditional dinner.

The little village of Siddi has its own Giara too: much smaller, but just as scenic. On a stage with little climbing, we enjoy the view from the highest point of the route before crossing one of the few true flatlands on the island: the plain of Terralba, with its farmland and small towns devoted to agriculture and livestock.

As always in our cycling paradise, everything changes in an instant. Next comes one of Sardinia's most typical and spectacular ecosystems, the lagoon: we reach Marceddì, a small fishing village on the shore of the lagoon of the same name, and ride across the water along one of its sluice gates. Then the scenery changes once more: huge sand dunes. Today it's the dunes of Pistis, but more are still to come.

We arrive at Torre dei Corsari, right on the sea, and it's time to sort through the photos from this long 84 km stage, with about 30% of it on gravel.

A stage between hills and sea, in an area that was once busy and densely populated and has gradually returned to its origins: one of the most rugged and uninhabited parts of the island. What changed the fate of this stretch of the southwest coast? Simple: the collapse of a mining industry that once had its beating heart right here.

From the drama of the shutdown to the miracle of nature reclaiming its space, in a spectacular contrast with the old industrial buildings that plants and flowers now cling to. Where there is a mine, nobody dreams of building a hotel: the mining industry kept large-scale tourism investment away, and so an area that was once under heavy human pressure is today a destination for nature lovers.

We ride a mountain stage with sea views. We start along the coast and soon reach one of the highlights of the day: the famous dunes of Piscinas, a true desert with towering mountains of sand tens of meters high and a postcard-perfect sea. From there we climb, cross the pass and drop down to another stunning beach, San Nicola. The final stretch to Buggerru, our finish line, is as short as it is spectacular, with the sea in view all the way. By the end we will have covered about 62 km, 30% of it on gravel.

Another 50 km, almost half of it on gravel, deep inside Sardinia's mining past. And once again, it will be a carousel of images you will not easily forget.

We start strong right away, so it's worth warming up a little. We leave Buggerru, a small port built to serve the mines, riding the old mine service roads. The climb is short but demanding, and it pays off. Then we use as many of the gravel tracks the old mines left us as we can, always staying along the coast. A detour takes us to Cala Domestica: trust us, it is a little marvel.

From there a long climb begins, with a fairly tough finish, taking us over Montecani and sending us down one of the most spectacular and scenic descents on the island.

Here the coastal mining territory ends and the part closer to Iglesias, further inland, begins. From Gonnesa we climb toward Villaggio Asproni and roll down into Iglesias, one of the oldest towns in Sardinia, with a stunning medieval old town full of life, bars serving excellent beers and aperitivos, and top-quality restaurants.

The queen stage, the longest and toughest, is the final one: 92 km, 30% of it on gravel. But in all its length, it once again delivers images and colors you will not forget.

Not everyone has had the chance to see monumental olive trees, thousands of years old, with trunks up to 15 meters around. We will meet them in the territory of Villamassargia, at S'Ortu Mannu. From here begins the last part of the tour through the mining past of southern Sardinia.

From the Rosas site onward, the road heads toward the coast. And that coast is, we are not afraid to say it, one of the most spectacular coastal roads in the world, linking the little fishing harbor of Teulada to the beaches of Chia. In this last part of the stage we have not included any significant gravel sections, apart from one short scenic detour.

Before Capo Spartivento we make a quick stop at Su Giudeu, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, because a cold beer is waiting for us to toast the end of an unforgettable journey.

Eight remarkable and varied days, nearly 496 km, and a journey through the many faces of Sardinia's southwest, riding along some of the most spectacular gravel roads in the Mediterranean.