Montserrat Mountain Roads

A 206 km loop

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Why this ride

A proper escape from Barcelona with roads worth waking up for. A 206 km loop that starts and ends near Montmeló, about 3 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Scenic stretch in Vilassar de Mar, la Marina del Prat Vermell and El Prat de Llobregat. Premià de Mar is the high point. The line favours views over speed.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop in Montmeló fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. Scenic stretch in Vilassar de Mar scenic

   Vilassar de Mar is a Maresme town with salt in its blood. It stretches along the coast northeast of Barcelona, between the railway, the main road and a broad sandy beach, with fishing boats pulled up on the sand and an old centre of narrow streets and low whitewashed houses. Behind the town, fields and greenhouses climb toward the wooded hills of the coastal range, and on a clear day you can see along the shore toward Mataró and back to Barcelona.

   The town's history lies at sea. In the nineteenth century Vilassar de Mar produced many sailors and ship captains who traded with the Americas, and the town still has a maritime museum and a long tradition of nautical schools. Some of the grander houses in the centre were built with money made in Cuba and elsewhere. Today the Maresme is better known for its agriculture: strawberries, peas and especially flowers, grown in greenhouses on the slopes, and Vilassar de Mar hosts the large flower and ornamental plant market of Catalonia.

   The coast road, the N-II, runs along the shore beside the railway, a slow and often congested route through a chain of towns, with traffic lights and roundabouts. It is pleasant early in the morning, with the sea on one side, but on summer weekends it is crawling with beach traffic. The C-32 motorway inland is faster and tolled on some sections. The better riding lies behind the coast, where small roads climb through the hills of the Serralada de Marina and the Montnegre-Corredor park to cols with views over the sea, before dropping into the Vallès plain.

   The rides from here go north and south. The Cap de Creus ride runs up the coast through the Costa Brava, with its cliffs, coves and coastal roads, to the rocky peninsula near the French border. The Priorat ride heads the other way, past Barcelona and inland to the terraced vineyards and slate hills of one of Spain's great wine regions. Both deserve an early start to avoid the city's traffic.

   Vilassar de Mar has fuel, cafes, bakeries and restaurants, many serving seafood and rice dishes. The beach is clean and popular in summer, and a swim at the end of the day is easy. Parking near the beach can be scarce in high season, but bikes usually find a spot. Keep an eye on the speed cameras along the N-II.

3. Premià de Mar pass

   This is where the road stops climbing.

4. la Marina del Prat Vermell photo

   This is not the Barcelona of postcards, and that is half its charm for a rider. La Marina del Prat Vermell sits on the flat ground between the southern slope of Montjuïc and the Zona Franca, the city's great industrial and logistics zone, with the port cranes on one side, warehouses and new apartment blocks on the other, and the motorway ring roads that make escape from the city fast. It is a neighbourhood in transition, long a pocket of workers' housing among factories, now slowly being rebuilt.

   Look up and the mountain tells a better story. Montjuïc's seaward face is covered by the Montjuïc cemetery, a vast terraced city of tombs and mausoleums that steps down toward the port, a strange and moving sight from the road below. Above it sits the castle, which held prisoners through several wars and was where the Catalan president Lluís Companys was executed in 1940. And for motorcyclists the mountain has its own legend: its park roads were home to the 24 Horas de Montjuïc endurance race for decades, and Grand Prix cars raced there until the 1970s. You can still ride the climb past the Olympic stadium and the gardens, with the city spread below.

   From here the rides head out fast. The Ronda Litoral and the B-10 connect to the motorways west and north, the A-2 and AP-7, which lead toward the Priorat and the Pyrenees. Traffic in and around Barcelona is dense and aggressive, scooters filter everywhere, and the ring roads have speed cameras and variable limits, so stay alert. Early on a weekend morning the industrial streets are nearly empty, which makes it one of the calmer places in the city to start a long day.

   The Priorat ride is a world away from these warehouses: dark slate hills, terraced vines and village churches inland from Tarragona, with some of the best small roads in Catalonia. The N-260 weekend climbs the length of the Pyrenees, a famously winding road with mountain towns and long views. Both deserve an early start and a full tank.

   There are fuel stations along the main avenues of the Zona Franca, and the neighbouring areas of la Marina de Port and Poble-sec have bars and cafes for a coffee and a bocadillo before you go. For a longer pause, take the bike up Montjuïc for a view across the port, which is especially good at sunset when you return.

5. Near El Prat de Llobregat finish

   The Llobregat delta is flat, green and noisy in equal measure. Jets climb out of Barcelona's airport over the sea, the city's port stretches along the coast to the north, and between them lie fields of artichokes, orchards, marshes and pine-backed beaches.

   The delta was built by the river over thousands of years, a fertile plain that fed Barcelona for centuries. Two local products are famous: the artichokes of El Prat, sold under their own protected name, and the Prat chicken, a breed with distinctive blue legs that is a Christmas delicacy in Catalonia. In the early 2000s the mouth of the Llobregat was shifted south to make room for the port's expansion, one of the larger engineering projects on this coast.

   Nature hangs on in surprising ways. The Delta del Llobregat nature reserves protect marshes, lagoons and pine woods by the beach, with hides where you can watch herons, egrets, waders and other birds, and the area is an important stop on migration routes. The beaches of El Prat are long, open and often almost empty compared with those of the city, with dunes and pines behind them, though the roar of planes is constant.

   For riders, the delta is mainly a place to begin and end. The roads are flat and straight, with roundabouts, lorries and airport traffic, and the B-22 and C-31 lead quickly onto the motorways. Head north and west toward the Pyrenees and the N-260, or south along the coast toward Tarragona and the Priorat. Within an hour the delta's flatness is behind you and the first hills begin to climb.

   El Prat has fuel, cafes and supermarkets, and the town centre has restaurants serving Catalan food, including the local artichokes in season, which runs roughly from late autumn to spring. Gavà and Viladecans to the south also have every service. Wind can be strong on the open delta, especially in the afternoon when the sea breeze picks up, and the area around the airport is heavily policed, with speed cameras on the main roads. Keep it gentle until you reach the mountains.

6. Food stop near Sitges food
7. Near Sant Vicenç de Castellet, on the way back swim
8. Back to Montserrat finish

   Montmeló is a small town of about nine thousand north of Barcelona, and for anyone who loves motorcycles it has a particular fame. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya lies right beside it, a purpose-built track that opened in 1991 and has hosted both the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix and the MotoGP Catalan round, and a lot of testing. On a race weekend the whole town fills with fans, flags and the whine of engines, and on quiet days you can sometimes hear a test bike through the trees. It is an unlikely place for an agricultural village to end up.

   The surrounding country is the Vallès Oriental, a plain with low hills between the Serralada Litoral and the Montseny massif, dotted with towns like Mollet del Vallès and Parets. Montmeló itself has an older face, with a Roman villa site nearby and a few farmhouses, called masies, that survived the housing. A stream runs along the edge of town, and in spring the poppies and wild fennel grow along the verges.

   For riding, the area is built around motorways and ring roads. The C-33 and the AP-7 carry heavy traffic between Barcelona and Girona, and the junctions are fast and complicated. The reward lies north and east, where roads lead up into the Montseny and the Serralada de Marina. Weekends bring many motorcyclists, and the roads near the circuit fill with riders on sport bikes, so ride with awareness. Police patrol the area, and speed cameras are common. In summer, the heat on the plain is intense, and the best time is early in the morning.

   Fuel is easy, with several stations between Montmeló and Mollet, and supermarkets and bakeries in each town. The circuit has a shop and cafe open on event days, and there are bars in the village centre that serve coffee and bocadillos. If you have time, consider visiting the circuit museum or a track day, when you can ride the circuit itself. Parking is easy in the village except on race weekends, when streets close.

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