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.
352 km from Vielha to Vielha, about 7 h 28 of riding. The stops in between: Balma de les Ovelles, Cova del Cogulló, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars and back through Cova del Cogulló. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The little Romanesque church of Santa Eulàlia stands at Erill la Vall, one of the villages of the Vall de Boí in the Catalan Pyrenees, and its tall, slim bell tower is a landmark from the road. Together with ten other churches and hermitages in the valley, it was listed by UNESCO in 2000, and the whole group is a small marvel. They were built in the early twelfth century, in a style borrowed from Lombardy, with stout stone walls, round arches and bell towers decorated with blind arcades. Inside, the frescoes that once covered the walls were taken down in the early twentieth century and are now in the museum in Barcelona, while replicas have been placed on site.
Read the complete Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia 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 34 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 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova del Cogulló. Next is Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars.
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, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Cova del Cogulló sits at 172 km, 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 comes up about 317 km into the recorded legs. Next is Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia closes the day.
Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia → Balma de les Ovelles is 34 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 → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → back through Cova del Cogulló is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Cogulló → back through Balma de les Ovelles is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balma de les Ovelles → Eglésia de Santa Eulàlia is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.