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.
256 km from Vielha to Vielha, about 3 h of riding. The stops in between: Balma de les Ovelles, Cova del Cogulló and back through Balma de les Ovelles. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,000 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 35 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Boí is the lowest and quietest of the Romanesque villages in this Pyrenean valley, and its church of Sant Joan stands among old stone houses a little above the road. It is one of the nine churches in the Vall de Boí listed by UNESCO, and unlike the better-known Taüll it has a quieter, more domestic feel. The nave is plain, the tower is square and slim, and a porch along the side gives the building the look of a country chapel rather than a monument. Painted decoration survives inside, including scenes on the walls, though much of what you see is a careful reproduction while the original fragments are kept in museums in Barcelona and Lleida.
Read the complete Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí is where the day begins. 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.
Balma de les Ovelles comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 117 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova del Cogulló. 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, late in the day. Next is Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí. That is the ride.
Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí → Balma de les Ovelles is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balma de les Ovelles → Cova del Cogulló is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → back through Balma de les Ovelles is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balma de les Ovelles → Eglésia de Sant Joan de Boí is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.