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.
346 km from Os de Balaguer to Os de Balaguer, about 7 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Les Aparets I, Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros, Cova del Cogulló and back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is where the day begins. Next is Les Aparets I.
Artesa de Segre lies in the broad valley where the Noguera Pallaresa comes out of the Pre-Pyrenees, a market town of about three and a half thousand people with the long wall of the Montsec range blocking the northern horizon. The country is the Catalan interior in its most characteristic form, with wheat and barley on the flats, almond and olive on the lower slopes, and pine and oak where the hills become steep. Les Aparets, about five kilometres out, is one of the rock shelters of the region, and the rides tie it with the Cova dels Vilars, sometimes spelled Vilasos, and the Cova del Cogulló. These belong to the cluster of Levantine painted sites that reach into Catalonia, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. Further west in the same province lies the famous Roca dels Moros at El Cogul, with its scene of dancing women, which gives you a sense of how widespread the tradition once was.
Read the complete Les Aparets I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Aparets I comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 105 km into the recorded legs you reach Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros. 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, 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 sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Les Aparets I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Aparets I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Les Aparets I comes up about 293 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars closes the day.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → Les Aparets I is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Aparets I → Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → Cova del Cogulló is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → back through Les Aparets I is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Aparets I → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.