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 Artesa de Segre it runs 405 km to Artesa de Segre; allow about 7 h 29 of riding. On the way it passes Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros, Balma de les Ovelles, Eglésia de Santa Maria and back through Balma de les Ovelles. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. 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 28 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Balma de les Ovelles.
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.
about 173 km into the recorded legs you reach Balma de les Ovelles. Next is Eglésia de Santa Maria.
Nine Romanesque churches stand in the Vall de Boí, high in the Catalan Pyrenees, and together they make one of the most coherent medieval landscapes in Europe. They were built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in a style that came from Lombardy with masons who knew how to raise stone towers without much money. UNESCO inscribed the group in 2000, calling them outstanding examples of a distinctive Lombard-Catalan style in a remote mountain setting.
Read the complete Eglésia de Santa Maria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglésia de Santa Maria, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Balma de les Ovelles sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros comes up about 347 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Cova del Cogulló closes the day.
Cova del Cogulló → Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → Balma de les Ovelles is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Balma de les Ovelles → Eglésia de Santa Maria is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglésia de Santa Maria → back through Balma de les Ovelles is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balma de les Ovelles → back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → Cova del Cogulló is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.