CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
From Collbató it runs 746 km to Castelldefels; allow about 12 h 39 of riding. On the way it passes Cardona castle sight, Siurana cliff village, in Falset and Montserrat. near Sant Pere de Ribes is the high point. The passes are the reason to go.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 56 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Collbató sits at the foot of Montserrat's southern flank, and the road from here to the monastery is one of the classic mountain rides of Catalonia. The village is small, with about three thousand people, and old enough that its streets feel more like a Mediterranean hill town than a suburb. Above it, the rock rises in a wall of towers and fingers, some of them with names that locals use to point them out.
Read the complete Montserrat mountain road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Montserrat mountain road is where the day begins. Next is Cardona castle sight.
Cardona castle looks down on a town built on salt. The fortress sits on a ridge above the Cardener river, a hilltop of towers and walls that dates back to the ninth century, and it served as the seat of the Dukes of Cardona, one of the most powerful noble families in medieval Catalonia. Today much of the castle has become a Parador hotel, and its Romanesque church of Sant Vicenç, consecrated in the eleventh century, is a gem of early Catalan architecture. The town below has about five thousand people and a quiet, cobbled centre.
Read the complete Cardona castle sight write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cardona castle sight comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Siurana cliff village.
Siurana is the kind of place that makes you slow down on the approach. The village sits on top of a sheer cliff in the Priorat, above a reservoir, with a few stone houses and a Romanesque church crowded on a narrow rock. From the road, you see it from far off, a little crown of buildings above an abyss.
Read the complete Siurana cliff village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 218 km into the recorded legs you reach Siurana cliff village. Next is Food stop in Falset.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 252 km into the recorded legs. Next is Back to Montserrat.
A mountain that has been eaten by a thousand tourist buses still manages to be impressive. The rock is conglomerate, a gravelly stone of ancient river deposits, which erodes into towers and needles, and which makes the mountain a favourite of rock climbers. The name means serrated mountain, and from the plain the outline looks like the teeth of a saw.
Read the complete Montserrat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Montserrat. That is the ride. Next is Tibidabo Dawn Short Loop.
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.
Tibidabo Dawn Short Loop is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is High point near Sant Pere de Ribes.
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.
Read the complete High point near Sant Pere de Ribes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Tibidabo Dawn Short Loop checkpoint 8.
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.
Read the complete Sant Vicenç dels Horts write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Tibidabo Dawn Short Loop checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch near Caldes de Montbui.
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.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Caldes de Montbui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Caldes de Montbui sits at 523 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Centelles.
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.
Read the complete Photo stop near Centelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Centelles comes up about 613 km into the recorded legs. Next is Barcelona / Catalonia return.
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.
Read the complete Canet de Mar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 668 km into the recorded legs you reach Barcelona / Catalonia return. Next is Tibidabo Dawn Short Loop food stop.
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.
Read the complete la Marina del Prat Vermell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 722 km into the recorded legs. Next is Back to Tibidabo.
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.
Read the complete Tibidabo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Tibidabo closes the day.
Montserrat mountain road → Cardona castle sight is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cardona castle sight → Siurana cliff village is 160 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Siurana cliff village → Food stop in Falset is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop in Falset → Back to Montserrat is 146 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Back to Montserrat → Fuel stop near Castelldefels is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Castelldefels → High point near Sant Pere de Ribes is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Sant Pere de Ribes → Sant Vicenç dels Horts is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Caldes de Montbui → Photo stop near Centelles is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Centelles → Canet de Mar is 55 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.