Cafés owned by pro cyclists
13 on the map · 1 more worldwide ·
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When a professional stops racing, a surprising number of them open a café. It makes sense the moment you are in one: the racks are in the right place, the coffee is taken seriously, and the person who made it spent fifteen years learning exactly what a rider wants at the end of a hard morning.
Girona has a whole scene of them, because Girona is where the peloton lives between races. Christian Meier's La Fábrica and Espresso Mafia, Robert Gesink's Hors Catégorie. Elsewhere they are one-offs worth building a route around.
On the map
- 9.30 Café9.30 Café is a Bogotá coffee concept co-owned by Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana, the 2014 Giro d'Italia and 2016 Vuelta a España champion.
- Café De KarperCafé De Karper is a traditional brown café on Gent's inner ring, a short ride from Het Kuipke where the Zesdaagse van Vlaanderen is raced.
- Cycling PlanetCycling Planet is a bike shop, workshop, and café on Alaró's main street, run since 2012 by former track cycling world champion David Muntaner and his wife L…
- Drip Coffee CultureDrip Coffee Culture is a specialty coffee retailer on Linz's Adlergasse, opened in March 2026 by former professional cyclist Daniel Eichinger.
- Espresso MafiaSpecialty coffee bar and roastery on Carrer de la Cort Reial in Girona's old town, opened in 2016 by retired WorldTour pro Christian Meier and his wife Amber…
- Federal CaféAn Australian-style brunch café on Carrer de la Força, the old-town lane climbing to Girona's cathedral.
- Go Rigo GoGo Rigo Go is the flagship cafe of Colombian cyclist Rigoberto Uran, sharing a storefront with his GO RIGO GO!
- Handlebar Coffee RoastersHandlebar Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee roastery and café with two locations in Santa Barbara, founded in 2011 by Aaron Olson and Kim Anderson, both …
- Hors CatégorieHors Catégorie is a cycling-themed cafe and restaurant in Girona co-founded by Dutch professional cyclist Robert Gesink.
- Kafe ŽebříkKafe Žebřík is a family-run specialty coffee café on the edge of Sušice, the gateway town to the Šumava foothills.
- La ComunaRiders climbing out toward Sant Daniel, Rocacorba, or Els Àngels pass right by La Comuna's spare, stone-walled façade at the edge of Girona's old town, and t…
- La FábricaLa Fábrica has been a fixture of Girona's road-cycling scene since it opened in the old town in March 2015, and riders still gather here before heading out t…
- VELO Food & DrinksEetcafe on the first floor of the Sven Nys Cycling Center on the Balenberg in Baal, run personally by the retired cyclocross champion and his partner Anneke …
Not yet on the map
Verified members outside our covered regions — each joins the map when its region does.
- Zappi's Bike Café Flavio Zappi, an Italian ex-pro who rode the Giro. The café above the Bike Zone shop doubles as HQ of Zappi's race club and its development team.
The Service Course, the Girona ride-hub the Meiers founded with Simon Gerrans and Mike Woods among the investors, closed in March 2025 after nearly a decade. Juan Pelota, inside Lance Armstrong's Mellow Johnny's in Austin, has served its last cortado. Grimpeurs in Lyon went into liquidation the same year, and the Raleigh café in Brest shut its doors. Café Fringale near Antwerp is closed too, though its own site says only until October 2026.
Pro-owned cafés are businesses, not monuments. Go while they're open.