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 Sopeira it runs 506 km to Sopeira; allow about 10 h 11 of riding. On the way it passes Cova del Cogulló, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars, Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés and Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Balma de les Ovelles, the Sheep's Shelter, lies in the high country where Catalonia meets Aragon, between the valleys of the Noguera Ribagorçana and the Noguera Pallaresa. This is the southern edge of the Pyrenees, a land of limestone ridges, deep gorges, reservoirs and scattered villages, many of them half empty. Rock shelters like this one, used by shepherds and their flocks for thousands of years, are found throughout the region, and some hold traces of prehistoric painting or occupation. The name tells you what it was most recently used for, and the landscape around still carries the sound of sheep bells.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Balma de les Ovelles is where the day begins. Next is Cova del Cogulló.
Between the plains of Lleida and the first serious mountains of the Pyrenees there is a band of country that most people cross without noticing, and it is a mistake. The Cova del Cogulló lies here, in the hills of the Noguera between Artesa de Segre and the Montsec, a long limestone wall that rises abruptly from the farmland. Rock shelters in these hills carry prehistoric paintings, part of the Mediterranean rock art tradition that runs all along eastern Spain, and the region's churches add a medieval layer, small Romanesque buildings in nearly every village.
Read the complete Cova del Cogulló write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova del Cogulló comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars.
Os de Balaguer is a small village on the edge of the pre-Pyrenean hills in the Noguera district of Lleida, and the Cova dels Vilasos, also known as the Cova dels Vilars, lies just outside it. The site is one of the painted rock shelters of Catalonia counted within the Mediterranean rock art group protected by UNESCO, and its figures are small and reddish, drawn by people who lived from hunting and gathering in what was then a far wilder landscape. Like its neighbours it is protected and rarely dramatic at first sight; give your eyes a moment in the shade and the shapes begin to come out of the stone.
Read the complete Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. Next is Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés.
South of Lleida the irrigated orchards give way abruptly to dry, open steppe, and the little village of Alfés sits on the edge of that change. The Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés are rock paintings in a small sandstone shelter near the village, schematic designs in red pigment, mostly abstract lines, dots and simplified figures, that belong to the later, more symbolic phase of prehistoric art in eastern Spain, and they are included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean Basin rock art. They are modest to look at, but there is something powerful about seeing marks left by people thousands of years ago in such an open, wind-swept place.
Read the complete Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés, about halfway. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume sits at 191 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés comes up about 303 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 365 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. Next is back through Cova del Cogulló.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova del Cogulló write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova del Cogulló, late in the day. Next is Balma de les Ovelles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 506 km.
Balma de les Ovelles → Cova del Cogulló is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés → Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → back through Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés → back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → back through Cova del Cogulló is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Cogulló → Balma de les Ovelles is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.