In early October, Varese in Italy hosted the UEC Granfondo European Championships: a time trial on Saturday and the road race on Sunday. For the trip there and back, Auto-Impex lent us a Nissan X-Trail e-POWER (2025). Here is how it all went, on the road and on the course.
Three bikes inside the car
I never travel light to a championship, but this time we packed pretty much the whole flat into the car. If the washing machine had fit, it would probably have come too. Among other things, three bikes came with us: the time trial bike and two road bikes, plus luggage, tools, food and kit for every kind of weather.
The bikes didn’t go on the roof or a tow-bar rack but inside. We built the stand ourselves, screwing front-fork mounts onto a wooden parquet board with good tools from Náradovňa. With the rear seats folded the X-Trail has a flat floor, the board sits on it and the bikes stand side by side. Take the front wheels out, drop the seatposts all the way, and they stay dry and safe the whole way.
The route: 960 km through five countries
From Bratislava we took the motorway past Vienna and Linz, crossed into Germany at Braunau, went round Munich and followed the A96 to Lake Constance. Through Vorarlberg into Switzerland, through the San Bernardino tunnel and down past Lugano to Varese. We stayed in Cittiglio, close to Lago Maggiore, at the CasaCri apartment: very comfortable, with safe parking for the car. The stay itself has a post of its own.
What the X-Trail is like on a long drive
The X-Trail e-POWER fills up like any car but drives smoothly and quietly, almost like an EV: an electric motor drives the wheels and the petrol engine only makes its electricity. After nearly a thousand kilometres each way, it’s the things you never notice on a short test drive that count:
- Comfort. The seats are fully electric, leather, with lumbar support for the passenger too. They go up high and you sit high, with a view almost like from a truck. There is so much legroom that Michal, at 185 cm, could sit with his legs stretched out.
- Quiet. The cabin is very quiet, even at high speed.
- Fuel. After more than 2,000 km the trip computer showed an average of 6.8 l/100 km. For an SUV this size, fully loaded, that is excellent, especially since we did 175 km/h on the unrestricted stretches of German autobahn. We left Slovakia with a full tank and, for the whole trip there and back, only filled up twice more, both times in Austria.
The touches we liked
- The panoramic roof surprised us most. It fills the cabin with light, and opened for ventilation it stays quiet even at 140 km/h, a speed where open windows are no longer an option.
- Doors that open almost to 90 degrees. More useful than you’d think when loading bikes.
- A flat floor. Fold the rear seats and it runs flat to the front seats. Nissan quotes 575 litres of boot space and 16 ways to arrange it.
- 360° cameras. A bird’s-eye view of the car, with warnings for kerbs and anything moving around you. Handy when parking a big SUV.
- Dual-zone climate control. Driver and passenger each set their own temperature.
- The voice assistant was a nice surprise. Ask where the nearest petrol station is and it finds it; it worked out how many kilometres we had left, and asked the right way, it even told us where fuel was cheaper.
For cyclists it’s a great car: the bikes fit inside, front-fork mounts and all, and don’t have to travel on the roof.
One personal note to finish: the X-Trail is addictive. We’ve driven quite a few cars to races over long distances, and this one is hard to compare with. Back home, we genuinely missed it.
Why rent from Auto-Impex
- Simple and hassle-free. Renting the car was simple and the staff were very helpful. They even let us leave our own car with them while we were away.
- Vignettes and servicing sorted. The car has an annual Slovak motorway vignette and servicing is taken care of. We bought the annual Swiss vignette ourselves and it stays with the car, so whoever rents the X-Trail for a ski trip to Switzerland this winter won’t need to buy one: it’s valid until the end of January 2027.
- Experience and proper service. Auto-Impex has been in business for more than 30 years and was the first Nissan dealer in Slovakia. It shows: their own authorised service centre, roadside assistance and ISO 9001 quality certification.
Planning a similar trip? Take a look at Auto-Impex rentals or call their free line, 0800 700 500.
The races: chaos, stress and two results
Saturday: time trial, 7th
The time trial was 22 km with 202 m of climbing. I rode it in 36:34, good for 7th at the European Championships. That’s better than I expected, because until the last moment I didn’t know whether I would start at all. I wasn’t on the start list, the race office opened at nine and what felt like a thousand riders crowded in. Once it was sorted I had a 12:28 start, a bike check still to do, and no time for a warm-up or a look at the course. More of a theatrical performance than an athletic one, but I’ll take seventh.
Sunday: Granfondo, 25th
Sunday was 126 km with 2,322 m of climbing, and I finished 25th. The race was neutralized because of a serious crash and the results were taken at that point; everyone who reached the finish in one piece was a winner. There were lots of crashes, broken bikes and punctures. Right where the course split into the mediofondo and granfondo an ambulance was coming through and I took the wrong turn, which may have kept me out of that big crash. With the warm-up and the ride back, I covered 162.66 km that day, my longest ride this year.
The organisation in Varese wasn’t the best, but the drive there and back was the pleasant part of the whole trip.
Thank you
A big thank you to Auto-Impex for lending us the X-Trail. For a trip with three bikes it proved excellent. The races are on my Strava and photos from the trip on Instagram.