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 Gràcia it runs 272 km to Gràcia; allow about 4 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of La Pedra de les Orenetes, Cova dels Segarulls, Cova de Vallmajor and back through Cova dels Segarulls. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Monserrat Mountain Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Casa Vicens is where Gaudí began, and you can see him working out his ideas. He was in his early thirties when he took on the commission, between 1883 and 1888, for Manuel Vicens i Montaner, a stockbroker and ceramics manufacturer who wanted a summer house in what was then the separate town of Gràcia. The result is a small, colourful building with a Moorish air, built of rough stone and brick, striped with glazed tiles in green and white, and covered in tiles painted with marigolds, a flower that grew on the site.
Read the complete Casa Vicens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Casa Vicens is where the day begins. Next is La Pedra de les Orenetes.
La Pedra de les Orenetes, the Swallows' Stone, is a granite boulder in the hills above La Roca del Vallès, and its surface is covered with small carved hollows and other marks left by people in prehistory. Nobody knows exactly what they meant; such engraved rocks are found across Catalonia, and theories range from ritual offerings to maps of the stars. The rock sits among cork oaks and pines in the Serralada Litoral, the coastal range that separates the Vallès plain from the sea, and the walk to reach it is short and pleasant, through scented forest with views over the plain.
Read the complete La Pedra de les Orenetes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Pedra de les Orenetes comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova dels Segarulls.
The vineyards of the Penedès roll out in every direction from Vilafranca, and the Cova dels Segarulls lies among them, a few kilometres outside the town in the low hills toward the coastal range.
Read the complete Cova dels Segarulls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 106 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova dels Segarulls. Next is Cova de Vallmajor.
Inland from the Costa Daurada, behind the beach towns of El Vendrell and Calafell, the land rises into the low hills of the Baix Penedès, a landscape of vineyards, almond and olive groves, pine woods and small villages. The Cova de Vallmajor, near Albinyana and Bonastre, is a rock shelter in these hills with prehistoric paintings, part of the Levantine rock art of the Mediterranean that is recognised as a World Heritage Site. The paintings are faint and the shelter is protected, so visits are usually by arrangement.
Read the complete Cova de Vallmajor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova de Vallmajor, about halfway. Next is back through Cova dels Segarulls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova dels Segarulls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova dels Segarulls sits at 185 km, about halfway. Next is back through La Pedra de les Orenetes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Pedra de les Orenetes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Pedra de les Orenetes comes up about 238 km into the recorded legs. Next is Casa Vicens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Casa Vicens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Casa Vicens closes the day.
Casa Vicens → La Pedra de les Orenetes is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Pedra de les Orenetes → Cova dels Segarulls is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cova dels Segarulls → Cova de Vallmajor is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Vallmajor → back through Cova dels Segarulls is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Segarulls → back through La Pedra de les Orenetes is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through La Pedra de les Orenetes → Casa Vicens is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.