Why this ride
From Vilafranca del Penedès it runs 440 km to Vilafranca del Penedès; allow about 6 h of riding. It goes by way of Roca Roja, Mas d'En Llort, Roques Guàrdies II and Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Abric de Can Ximet and Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 440 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 31
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abric de Can Ximet
The Penedès is a broad, gently rolling basin between the coastal ranges and the Montserrat massif, and it is one of the great wine regions of Catalonia. Vilafranca del Penedès, its capital, is a lively town with a Gothic church, a wine museum and a passion for castells, the human towers that teams of men, women and children build in the main square on feast days. UNESCO added the castells to its list of intangible heritage in 2010. Can Ximet is a farm name on the fringe of this landscape, and the shelter nearby is a modest rock overhang associated with prehistoric art.
Read the complete Abric de Can Ximet write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de Can Ximet is where the day begins. Next is Roca Roja.
2. Roca Roja
Roca Roja, the red rock, is a fitting name for this corner of inland Catalonia, where sandstone and conglomerate cliffs glow rust-coloured in the evening light above pine forest and small terraced fields. The point lies in the hills between Querol and Mediona, where the comarques of Alt Camp, Alt Penedès and Anoia meet, a rugged, thinly populated upland that most people speed past on the motorway between Barcelona and Lleida without realising it exists.
Read the complete Roca Roja write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roca Roja comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mas d'En Llort.
3. Mas d'En Llort
Montblanc is one of those small Catalan towns that still has its medieval walls, and the Mas d'en Llort label lies a few kilometres from it in the Conca de Barberà, a basin of vineyards and wheat fields ringed by low, scrubby mountains. A mas is a farmhouse, so the spot is probably a rural building or a field track rather than anything with a name on the map, and what you are really riding into is the countryside around it.
Read the complete Mas d'En Llort write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Mas d'En Llort. Next is Roques Guàrdies II.
4. Roques Guàrdies II
Les Garrigues is the dry, stony corner of western Catalonia, south-east of Lleida, a land of low hills, terraced olive groves, almond trees and stone huts, where the light is hard and the summers are hot. Roques Guàrdies II is a rock shelter in these hills near Juneda and Arbeca, with traces of prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, part of the World Heritage site of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula.
Read the complete Roques Guàrdies II write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roques Guàrdies II, about halfway. Next is Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume.
5. Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume
Mequinenza had to move. In the 1960s and 1970s, two dams built on the Ebro created a huge reservoir known as the Mar de Aragón, and the old town at the meeting of the Ebro and the Segre was abandoned and largely demolished, its people resettled in a new town above. The story is told in the town's museums and in the novels of Jesús Moncada, who grew up in the old Mequinenza. In a ravine nearby, the Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume holds prehistoric paintings, part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume sits at 174 km, about halfway. Next is back through Roques Guàrdies II.
6. back through Roques Guàrdies II
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roques Guàrdies II write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Roques Guàrdies II comes up about 296 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Mas d'En Llort.
7. back through Mas d'En Llort
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mas d'En Llort write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 341 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Mas d'En Llort. Next is back through Roca Roja.
8. back through Roca Roja
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roca Roja write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Roca Roja, late in the day. Next is Abric de Can Ximet.
9. Abric de Can Ximet
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de Can Ximet write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 440 km.
Leg by leg
Abric de Can Ximet to Roca Roja
Abric de Can Ximet → Roca Roja is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roca Roja to Mas d'En Llort
Roca Roja → Mas d'En Llort is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mas d'En Llort to Roques Guàrdies II
Mas d'En Llort → Roques Guàrdies II is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roques Guàrdies II to Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume
Roques Guàrdies II → Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume to back through Roques Guàrdies II
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → back through Roques Guàrdies II is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roques Guàrdies II to back through Mas d'En Llort
back through Roques Guàrdies II → back through Mas d'En Llort is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mas d'En Llort to back through Roca Roja
back through Mas d'En Llort → back through Roca Roja is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roca Roja to Abric de Can Ximet
back through Roca Roja → Abric de Can Ximet is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.