Tibidabo Dawn Short Loop
A 242 km loop
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Why this ride
A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. Out of Castelldefels and back again: 242 km, roughly 4 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Scenic stretch near Caldes de Montbui and near Centelles. The climb of the day is near Sant Pere de Ribes.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Castelldefels
fuel
Castelldefels is where Barcelona goes to the beach, and where the coast suddenly stops being flat. Behind the town's long sandy shore, the limestone hills of the Garraf massif rise abruptly, and just south of town the coast road begins its famous run along the cliffs to Sitges. A castle on a small hill, rebuilt many times, gives the town its name and keeps watch over the plain of the Llobregat delta to the north.
The beach is the heart of the place, several kilometres of fine sand with chiringuitos, beach bars, and a lively crowd in summer, when kitesurfers fill the water on breezy days. Planes from Barcelona's airport pass low overhead as they climb out over the sea. Away from the beach, Castelldefels is a prosperous residential town, popular with the wealthy, including many of Barcelona's footballers.
The road to know is the C-31 south toward Sitges. Once past the last houses, it clings to the cliffs above the sea, through tunnels and around a series of tight, blind bends, with views straight down into the coves and over the water. It is narrow and busy at weekends, with cyclists and cars, and police watch it closely, so ride it calmly and enjoy the scenery rather than chasing a time. Inland, small roads climb into the Garraf Natural Park, a dry landscape of scrub, limestone and pine where you can find a Tibetan Buddhist monastery among the hills, and the Modernista wine cellars at Garraf, designed by Gaudí, stand beside the coast road.
The rides from here go in very different directions. The Priorat ride heads southwest along the coast and inland to the slate vineyards and mountain villages behind Tarragona, while the Cap de Creus ride runs northeast past Barcelona to the rocky peninsula near the French border, where the Pyrenees meet the sea and Dalí made his home at Portlligat.
Castelldefels has everything: fuel, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, many serving paella and seafood on the beachfront. Traffic on the C-32 motorway and around the town can be heavy in summer and at rush hour, and parking near the beach in July and August is a challenge, though bikes usually have more options. For the best of the coast road, go early in the morning, when the light is soft and the traffic is still asleep.
- High point near Sant Pere de Ribes
pass
Behind the beaches of Sitges, the Garraf massif rises in a block of bare, pale limestone, covered in scrub, dwarf palms and pine, cut by dry ravines and riddled with caves. It is one of the most surprising landscapes near Barcelona, wild and empty, and Sant Pere de Ribes sits on its southern edge, a town of old farmhouses, vineyards and modern homes a few kilometres inland from the sea.
The Garraf is a natural park, and its rocky hills give long views over the Mediterranean and the coast. The famous road along the cliffs between Castelldefels and Sitges, the old C-31, is a spectacular ride, with tight bends, tunnels and the sea far below, although it can be busy and is patrolled by police. Inland, the roads through the massif and towards the Penedès vineyards are quieter, with curves and climbs. On the coast, Sitges is a lively resort known for its film festival, its carnival and its art museums, including the Cau Ferrat of the painter Santiago Rusiñol.
The riding here is excellent, with a mix of coastal and mountain roads. The surfaces are generally good, but the coast road can have gravel and rockfall, and the traffic can be heavy, especially on summer weekends. The weather is mild for most of the year, but summer can be very hot, and strong winds occasionally blow.
Sant Pere de Ribes has fuel stations, shops and restaurants, and Sitges has many more options. A meal of seafood by the sea, perhaps a xató, the local salad of endive, salt cod and anchovies with a romesco-like sauce, is a classic of the Garraf. From the high points of the massif, the view over the sea is wonderful, especially in the early morning.
- Sant Vicenç dels Horts
finish
Sant Vicenç dels Horts takes its name from the market gardens, the horts, that once covered the fertile plain of the Llobregat river, just south-west of Barcelona. Many of those gardens survive today in the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park, a protected area of farmland squeezed between motorways, factories and suburbs, which supplies Barcelona with vegetables, fruit and the famous artichokes of El Prat. It is an odd, fascinating landscape, where tractors and cabbages share the view with airliners and cranes.
The town itself is a busy, working suburb of about twenty-eight thousand people, with a small old centre. A short ride away, at Santa Coloma de Cervelló, lies the Colònia Güell, an industrial village built for the workers of a textile factory owned by the industrialist Eusebi Güell, Gaudí's great patron. Gaudí designed the church for the colony, but only the crypt was completed, and it is one of his most innovative works, with leaning columns and vaults that anticipate the structural ideas of the Sagrada Família. It is a World Heritage Site and well worth a visit.
The Tibidabo ride that ends here starts on the summit of the mountain that overlooks Barcelona, crowned by a church and an old amusement park, and follows the roads through the Collserola hills, a large natural park of pine forests and ridges just behind the city, with views over Barcelona and the sea. The roads are narrow and winding, often busy with cyclists, and best ridden at dawn, before the traffic and the heat.
As a finish point, Sant Vicenç is practical, with good access to the motorways and the main roads back into Barcelona. There are fuel stations, bakeries and bars in the town, and a coffee and a pastry after an early morning ride is the Catalan way. The Llobregat valley can be hot and hazy in summer, and the traffic on the main roads, especially around Molins de Rei and Martorell, can be heavy.
- Scenic stretch near Caldes de Montbui
scenic
Hot water bubbles out of the ground at Caldes de Montbui, so hot that it steams in the town square at the Font del Lleó, the lion fountain. The Romans built baths here two thousand years ago, and their remains can still be seen in the centre of town, a remarkable survival. The springs have made Caldes a spa town for centuries, with hotels and baths where visitors still come to bathe in the mineral water.
The town lies in the Vallès Oriental, north of Barcelona, at the foot of the hills that lead up to the Montseny and the Moianès plateau. The landscape is green and varied, with forests of pine and oak, small farms and villages. The cliffs and waterfalls of Sant Miquel del Fai, a monastery built into a rock wall, are a short ride away, and the town of Sant Feliu de Codines sits on a ridge above the valley with views towards Montserrat.
The riding from Caldes is excellent. The roads climb into the hills towards Sant Feliu de Codines and the Moianès, with tight bends, good surfaces and great views. They are very popular with motorcyclists on weekends, so expect company and occasionally fast riding, as well as cyclists on the climbs. The roads towards the Montseny offer more curves and higher altitudes. In summer, the heat can be intense, but the hills provide some relief.
Caldes de Montbui has fuel stations, shops, cafés and restaurants. A coffee in the square near the fountain is a pleasant break, and the town has a long tradition of thermal cuisine, with dishes cooked in the hot water. Tibidabo, the mountain above Barcelona, lies to the south, a satisfying end to a morning loop.
- Photo stop near Centelles
photo
Centelles stands at the southern entrance to the plain of Vic, where the Congost valley opens up after its narrow passage through the hills from Barcelona. The town has a long history: it was the seat of the powerful Counts of Centelles, and its old centre still has a medieval gate, narrow lanes and a palace. Above the town, the hill of Puigsagordi offers views over the plain and the surrounding mountains.
The Congost valley is a natural corridor, used for centuries by travellers, traders and armies between Barcelona and the interior. Today, the C-17 motorway and the railway run through it. The surrounding hills are covered in oak and pine forests, and the Montseny massif rises to the east, with its beech forests and high peaks. A little to the south lies Sant Miquel del Fai, a remarkable site where a monastery and church were built into a cliff beside waterfalls.
The riding around Centelles offers a mix of fast main roads and winding minor ones. The roads towards the Montseny and the Moianès plateau are particularly good, with curves, elevation changes and fine views. Weekends bring many motorcyclists and cyclists, so be careful on the bends. In summer, the heat can be intense, but the hills provide some relief.
Centelles has fuel stations, supermarkets and restaurants. The local cuisine features hearty Catalan dishes, cured meats and, in autumn, mushrooms gathered from the forests. Take a break here, explore the old town, and then head back towards Barcelona via Tibidabo, the mountain above the city with its amusement park and church, which gives a superb view over the metropolis and the sea.
- Canet de Mar
swim
The Maresme coast north of Barcelona has a particular rhythm: sea on one side, a railway line hugging the beach, then the N-II, then a strip of town climbing up towards wooded hills. Canet de Mar fits the pattern exactly. It is a working town rather than a resort, with a long sandy beach reached through underpasses beneath the tracks, and that is the reason it appears on these rides: it is one of the easier places along this coast to stop, swim and dry off in the sun before carrying on.
Canet has a surprisingly strong link to Catalan modernisme. Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the architect of the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Hospital de Sant Pau, had family ties to the town and spent a great deal of time here; his house is now a museum, and several buildings around Canet show the same love of brick, tile and ornament. If the beach is too busy, a short walk through the old streets is a good use of half an hour.
The riding along the N-II itself is honest rather than thrilling. It is a coast road through a chain of towns, with roundabouts, traffic lights, delivery vans and a 50 limit much of the way. Where it opens up between towns the views over the sea are pleasant, especially early on a summer morning when the light is low and the beach cleaners are still at work. The better riding is inland. Small roads climb from Canet and its neighbours into the hills of Montnegre i el Corredor, a natural park of cork oak, pine and holm oak, where narrow lanes twist between farms and you can go a long while without seeing another vehicle.
The beach shelves fairly quickly and the water can be choppy when the wind is from the east, so pick a calm day if you want a proper swim. Showers and beach bars appear in season. Fuel and food are easy in Canet and in Arenys de Mar next door, which also has a working fishing port and fish auction. Avoid the coast on summer Sunday evenings, when everyone in Barcelona seems to be heading home along the same road at the same moment.
- la Marina del Prat Vermell
food
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.
- Back to Tibidabo
finish
Castelldefels is where Barcelona's beaches run out and the mountains begin. The town sits on a long flat stretch of sand south-west of the city, with the Garraf massif rising steeply behind it, a rough block of limestone, scrub and pine that tumbles into the sea. A hilltop castle, first recorded in the eleventh century, overlooks the town, and the coast road, the C-31, runs along the shore toward Sitges through tunnels and above cliffs.
The label points to Tibidabo, the mountain behind Barcelona on the other side of the city, about twenty kilometres to the north-east, topped by a church and an old amusement park with a Ferris wheel and views across the whole city. The ride has crossed the whole of Barcelona, from that summit to the south-west, so this is the end of a long loop. The riding in the Garraf is the sort that suits a dawn start, with tight bends, steep climbs and wide views over the Mediterranean, and the Garraf Natural Park has gravel tracks and winding lanes through scrub that smells of thyme and rosemary.
The surrounding towns are practical rather than pretty. Gavà, with about forty-six thousand people, is a working town with a long beach and a mining museum, and nearby are archaeological sites from the Neolithic, when people dug galleries for a green mineral called variscite. Begues, higher up in the hills, is a small village with a more rural air, and a good place for a coffee. In summer, heat is intense, and in dry years fire danger can close some tracks.
Fuel, food and rooms are no trouble in Castelldefels, which has more than sixty thousand people, and beach restaurants serve rice with seafood and grilled fish. Weekend traffic on the coast road can be heavy, particularly on summer evenings, when everyone heads home from the beach. The best months are April to June and September to October, when the air is warm and the crowds thinner.