CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 345 km round trip from Oliana - roughly 6 h 55 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cova del Cogulló, Balma del Pantà, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars and Cova del Tabac. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up 23 km in. Next is Balma del Pantà.
Camarasa is a small town beneath a big wall of water. The dam across the Noguera Pallaresa, built in the early twentieth century, holds back a long reservoir, the Pantà de Camarasa, in a dry, rocky corner of Lleida where the pre-Pyrenees fall toward the Ebro plain. The cliffs rise steep and ochre above the water, and in the folds of that rock, shelters hold painted scenes from long before there was a dam or even a town. The Balma del Pantà is one of the sites of the Levantine rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean, a tradition listed by UNESCO in 1998.
Read the complete Balma del Pantà write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
46 km in you reach Balma del Pantà. 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 Cova del Tabac.
Above the village of Camarasa, where the Segre comes out of the pre-Pyrenean hills onto the plain of Lleida, a cave in the limestone holds some of the most interesting rock paintings in Catalonia. The Cova del Tabac, the tobacco cave, is a wide shelter with schematic paintings, simplified human figures, animals and symbols in red, and it is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art on the Iberian Peninsula. A short walk leads up from the road to the shelter, which also offers a fine view over the valley, and on a clear day the Pyrenees rise white on the northern horizon.
Read the complete Cova del Tabac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova del Tabac sits at 92 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars comes up 114 km in. Next is back through Balma del Pantà.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Balma del Pantà write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
137 km in you reach back through Balma del Pantà. 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, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 345 km.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → Cova del Cogulló is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → Balma del Pantà is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balma del Pantà → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → Cova del Tabac is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Tabac → back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → back through Balma del Pantà is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balma del Pantà → back through Cova del Cogulló is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Cogulló → Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.