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 471 km to Sopeira; allow about 9 h 39 of riding. On the way it passes Cova del Cogulló, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars, Antona I and Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 Antona I.
In the Pre-Pyrenees of Lleida, the plain of Urgell ends and the land starts folding into dry, golden hills. Artesa de Segre, Camarasa and Cubells are small places along the edge of this country, where the Segre river and the Noguera Pallaresa bring water down from the mountains, and where reservoirs and gorges give the landscape its character. The Camarasa dam, built in the early twentieth century on the Noguera Pallaresa, is a big wall of concrete holding back a long, green-blue lake in a narrow valley.
Read the complete Antona I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Antona I, about halfway. Next is Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros.
Where the Segre comes down from the Pyrenees towards the plains of Lleida, it squeezes through a gap at Oliana, held back by a dam and a reservoir that fills the valley above. On the slopes nearby, Roc del Rumbau, also called the Roca dels Moros, the Moors' rock, is a shelter with prehistoric paintings, one of the Catalan sites of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The name is a common one in Catalonia and Spain: local people often attributed anything ancient and mysterious to the Moors.
Read the complete Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros sits at 173 km, about halfway. Next is back through Antona I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Antona I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Antona I comes up about 282 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 330 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 471 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 → Antona I is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Antona I → Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → back through Antona I is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Antona I → back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 48 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.