Why this ride
A 216 km round trip from Santa Coloma de Cervelló - roughly 3 h 48 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cova dels Segarulls, Cova de Vallmajor, Abric de Can Castellvi and back through Cova de Vallmajor.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Crypt at the Colònia Güell and Abric de Can Castellvi
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 216 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 48
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Crypt at the Colònia Güell
Few people ride out of Barcelona expecting to find Gaudí in a mill village, but that is exactly what waits at Santa Coloma de Cervelló, a short hop up the Llobregat from Sant Boi. The Colònia Güell was a textile colony founded by the industrialist Eusebi Güell, who moved his cotton works out of the city in the 1890s and built housing, a school, shops and a theatre for the workers around the factory. He asked his friend Antoni Gaudí for a church. Gaudí spent about ten years on the design and its foundations, and when money and the Güell family's enthusiasm ran out around 1914, only the lower level had been finished. That crypt is what you come to see.
Read the complete Crypt at the Colònia Güell write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crypt at the Colònia Güell is where the day begins. Next is Cova dels Segarulls.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cova dels Segarulls comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova de Vallmajor.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova de Vallmajor. Next is Abric de Can Castellvi.
4. Abric de Can Castellví
The Penedès is wine country, and the landscape around Vilafranca del Penedès is a patchwork of vineyards rolling away toward the Montserrat massif in the north and the limestone hills of the Garraf in the south. Abric de Can Castellví is a small rock shelter in this landscape, one of the many sites of Levantine and schematic rock art scattered across Catalonia and included in the UNESCO serial site of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Like many such sites, it is modest in appearance, a hollow in the rock where faint painted figures have survived thousands of years, and access is often limited to protect the art.
Read the complete Abric de Can Castellvi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de Can Castellvi, about halfway. Next is back through Cova de Vallmajor.
5. back through Cova de Vallmajor
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova de Vallmajor write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cova de Vallmajor sits at 124 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cova dels Segarulls.
6. back through Cova dels Segarulls
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova dels Segarulls write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cova dels Segarulls comes up about 168 km into the recorded legs. Next is Crypt at the Colònia Güell.
7. Crypt at the Colònia Güell
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crypt at the Colònia Güell write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crypt at the Colònia Güell closes the day.
Leg by leg
Crypt at the Colònia Güell to Cova dels Segarulls
Crypt at the Colònia Güell → Cova dels Segarulls is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Segarulls to Cova de Vallmajor
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 to Abric de Can Castellvi
Cova de Vallmajor → Abric de Can Castellvi is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de Can Castellví to back through Cova de Vallmajor
Abric de Can Castellví → back through Cova de Vallmajor is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova de Vallmajor to back through Cova dels Segarulls
back through 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 to Crypt at the Colònia Güell
back through Cova dels Segarulls → Crypt at the Colònia Güell is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.