Kos island, the 3^rd largest in the Dodecanese, is a modern tourist destination with high quality hotels, numerous good eating and drinking establishments and many options for fun and activities. In summer the roads around the port are almost impassable. Pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes and cars move in and out in all directions. The music from the bars and taverns mixes with the noise of the street, with the voices of sunburned and drunken tourists as well as with the horns of incoming and outgoing ships. The tourist season in Kos lasts from April to October, peaking in August.

The island has an area of 295 sq. km , 112 km of coastline and over 33000 permanent inhabitants, mostly engaged in tourism.  The history of Kos goes far back in time. A walk in the city is enough to find this out.  Hippocrates, the famous father of medicine, was born in Kos.  Hippocrates is considered the founder of scientific medicine.  He passed healing from the hands of the magicians to the hands of the doctors.  He founded a medical school in the Asclepieion of Kos, traveled a lot and wrote many books that survive even to this day. His approach to medicine was what we now call holistic, dealing not only with the symptoms but mainly with the causes.  His mark in the history of medicine is indelible, graduate doctors all over the world begin their careers giving the oath of Hippocrates which refers mainly to the ethical practice of medicine.

The fact that medicine was developed there which included philosophical implications means that society was advanced. The city of Kos is built on the ruins of great civilizations. Walking around the narrow streets of the city, you find yourself in front of stone theatres that were built from the 3^rd century BC, you find yourself in front of temples and the ancient market that gathered goods from east and west, but the most important archeological monument is located 3.5 km outside the city and is the Asclepieion. In addition to being a place of teaching, it was a place of worship, sports and other social events.  In 260 BC in the Asclepieion of Kos also recognized the right to immunity, i.e. the right of every persecuted person to find refuge there. All this demonstrates the cultural level but also the power that Kos had.

The Middle Ages erased many elements of ancient prosperity in Kos. It was then looted by Saracen pirates, conquered by the Genoese, the Venetians and in 1315 by the Knights of the Order of St. John as were the remaining Dodecanese islands. In 1522 Kos passed to the administration of the Ottoman Empire and in 1912 it became fell into the possession of Italy. It was about this time that the wheels of the first bicycle on the island were pressed. Together with the army, the Italians brought bicycles and soon the first shops opened for trading and started repairing them.  The period of Italian rule ended in 1943 when Mussolini was forced to sign a truce.  From that moment on, German forces attacked the Italian army mercilessly.  The German occupation lasted only 2 years but managed to destroy what centuries of wars and battles had not destroyed. They also drove away the Jews who lived there while executing people and bombing even without a reason. In 1945 the British arrived as liberators, but their practices did not differ that much from those of previous conquerors, which brought major dissatisfaction to the islanders. The desire for democratic governance and integration within Greece resulted in the union on October 28, 1947.

The conquerors came and went and all left evidence in Kos that testifies to their passing. During the Italian occupation many excavations were made to highlight the antiquities, a road network was created and some of the buildings they built to house administrative services and settlers still stand and tell stories from the past.  The Italians, as mentioned previously, also brought the bicycle to the island.  The flat terrain of the city and many other factors favored it to become a habit for the residents and for visitors. Since the 1990s, plans and studies have begun to create bike lanes to reduce motor traffic. Results came soon, the first bike lane was made in the port, then to the nearby beaches and in the city while at the same time several roads were closed to cars and became exclusively for pedestrians and bicycles.

My first visit to Kos island was in 2017 as a guest in the International Trail Building Week .  Then, together with a team of trail builders from Italy, Germany, Switzerland together with the valuable assistance of local riders we built the first trails for MTB Enduro in Kos, Leros, Lipsi, Nisyros and Patmos islands that lead to many more.  Since then I have visited many times as a guide or to visit friends and ride a bike.  Every time I visit I see the network growing with the cycling community and that fills me with optimism.

When I was offered to participate in this mission I accepted with great pleasure. A few days later, I got in contact with some of the other members.  Andrea and Luca were in Italy and George in Kos. We were all looking forward to the day of the trip.  I started packing my bags a week before and prepared a swimsuit. I had a raincoat in hand along with other minor things.  However as the days of departure approached I was looking at the weather forecast and changing my priorities in equipment. I expected that the Aegean would welcome us colored by the flowers of spring, with clear blue waters, the unique Aegean sunlight and other stereotypes, but it’s good not to make plans, especially when it comes to the weather…

Day 1

The first part of the route, the climb, ended quickly and we found ourselves on the mountain above the city. Down or on the horizon we saw nothing other than the fog and entered another path, the Flow Turtle is one of those that have been made in recent years and it really is one of the most beautiful flow trails in Greece, every metre has been carefully constructed and every turn has the perfect inclination to keep the bike on track without much braking. After two days of riding with the Exploro Ultra I felt comfortable trusting it on an enduro trail, even though the conditions were adverse.  Very soon I found myself at the end of the trail waiting for the other two with a wide muddy smile to proceed to a different side of the mountain that was unknown to me.

Above Therma the fog had thickened and we had minimal visibility, water was flowing from everywhere and if we did not have the track in GPS we would definitely have been confused, we could not distinguish the road from a stream.  The bad weather started to subside when we reached the beach. We still had about 20 kilometers to complete the tour.  As soon as our wheels hit the asphalt, the clouds began to dissipate slowly and a cowardly sun came out.  Before reaching the city we stopped at the wetland that we accidentally skipped on the first day.^. The breeze had dried our clothes a bit when we arrived at the port and the inconvenience from the rain seemed distant.

We started inspecting the bikes. All these days we did not have time to do it. I tried to understand what was it that made me enjoy comfortable and safe riding. I’m not an expert on gravel bikes, I’ve ridden a few but it was easy to decode the geometry with the short asymmetric chainstay , the angle on the headtube that gave it stability and passed over anything.  Its peripherals also played an important role. The electronic shifting allowed me to lower quietly even on the hardest uphill cobblestones and Crank Brothers hydraulic seatpost was something I had not imagined could be useful on a gravel bike but when I positioned my body back to descend in steep places I appreciated it. But the biggest innovation of 3 T Explore Ultra is that it accepts tyres of up to 2.25 inches.

Before we went up to our rooms to get ready for the departure, we left the bikes in the bike shop to pack them and send them back to Italy.  After Kos I learnt they would be travelling to exhibitions in Europe. When I rested my bike on the stand I passed my hand over the horizontal tube as if to caress it, as if to say goodbye to a friend after having had a good time together and now everyone is going their own way.

When planning this trip we definitely had other images in mind, especially our Italian friends. We could say that the weather did not help us to realize them at all.  However, when we said goodbye we were all happy, full of images and sure that we would return to Kos in better weather and we would say “do you remember that bad weather in Kos? .. didn’t we have a great time!! ”

* in the writing of this article, no animal experiments were made, no rider was injured, no pneumonia or other illnesses related to cold and rain were reported.

During this XPDTN3 , Andrea and Luca made a video backstage of what you’ve just seen and read. They have posted it on their YouTube Channel, called “Gravellata”. The video is in Italian, but we hope that the YouTube automatic subtitles could help you with that…

If you got curious while scrolling between lines and photos about the Kos XPDTN3 and would like to try the experience yourself (hopefully with a bit of better luck regarding the weather), you can find the Komoot routes down below. We strongly suggest you start from the Sernikos bikes shop, so to be sure to find experienced and skilled personnel in case you had to face one of the many inevitable pre-departure unforeseen events, or even just buy something you forgot home!