CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 517 km, Vic to Argentona - roughly 8 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes Ripoll mountain, La Molina overnight option and in Argentona. The climbs: Collada de Toses and la Barceloneta. It tops out at about 1,850 m. It is a high-mountain day.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 32 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Vic is the capital of Osona, a prosperous market town of nearly forty thousand people in a high, fertile basin about seventy kilometres north of Barcelona, and it is the natural stopping point on the way to the Pyrenees. The main square, the Plaça Major, is a huge cobbled space ringed by arcades and old houses, and on Tuesdays and Saturdays it fills with stalls selling vegetables, cheese and cured meats. The Saturday market has been a fixture for centuries, and it is a good place to buy a sausage for the road.
Read the complete Vic fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vic is where the day begins. Next is Ripoll mountain.
Ripoll is where Catalonia, in a sense, began. In 879 Guifré el Pelós, Wilfred the Hairy, the count credited with founding the Catalan dynasty, established the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, and he is buried there. The carved Romanesque doorway, with its crowded scenes from the Bible and the lives of kings, is among the finest in Spain. Even if you only have time for a coffee, walk over and look at it.
Read the complete Ripoll mountain gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ripoll mountain is where this day stops to eat. Next is Collada de Toses.
The Collada de Toses is a Pyrenean pass at about 1,800 metres, on the road between Ripoll and Puigcerdà, and it is one of those places where you feel the landscape change as you cross it. On the south side, the valley of the Freser is green and wooded. On the north, the high basin of the Cerdanya opens out, broad and bright, with snow-covered peaks to the horizon in winter and spring.
Read the complete Collada de Toses write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is La Molina overnight option.
La Molina is the old ski village at the Catalan end of the Cerdanya, a high, sunny valley that the Pyrenees split between Spain and France. At roughly 1,400 metres, it is one of the early ski stations in Spain, with lifts that go back to the middle of the twentieth century, and today the slopes above it reach beyond 2,500 metres.
Read the complete La Molina overnight option write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Molina overnight option, early in the day. Next is Back to Vic.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vic fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Vic. That is the ride. Next is Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar.
Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Barcelona / Catalonia return.
328 km in you reach Barcelona / Catalonia return. Next is Food stop in Font-Rubí.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 383 km in. Next is Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar photo pull-off.
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.
Read the complete Castelldefels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar photo pull-off sits at 437 km, about halfway. Next is Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar checkpoint 8.
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.
Read the complete Near El Prat de Llobregat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar high point.
Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar high point is the summit of this stretch. Next is Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar scenic road.
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.
Read the complete Vilassar de Mar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar scenic road, late in the day. Next is Back to Costa Brava.
A few minutes from the sea but already in the hills, Argentona and Cabrils are two of the pleasantest places on the Maresme. They lie in the folds of the Serralada Litoral, a low ridge of pine and cork oak behind the coast north-east of Barcelona, and their stone houses, old farmhouses and modernist villas speak of a time when wealthy Barcelona families built their summer homes here. The hills catch cooler air than the city, and the smell of pine resin hangs in the warm afternoons.
Read the complete Costa Brava write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Costa Brava closes the day.
Vic fuel gate → Ripoll mountain gate is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ripoll mountain gate → Collada de Toses is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Collada de Toses → La Molina overnight option is 8 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Molina overnight option → Back to Vic is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Back to Vic → Fuel stop in Argentona is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop in Argentona → Near Sallent, on the way back is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop in Font-Rubí → Castelldefels is 48 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.