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.
From Oliana it runs 464 km to Oliana; allow about 9 h 18 of riding. It goes by way of Antona I, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars, Cova del Cogulló and Monderes. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 Antona I.
In the Pre-Pyrenees of Lleida, the plain of Urgell ends and the land starts folding into dry, golden hills. Artesa de Segre, Camarasa and Cubells are small places along the edge of this country, where the Segre river and the Noguera Pallaresa bring water down from the mountains, and where reservoirs and gorges give the landscape its character. The Camarasa dam, built in the early twentieth century on the Noguera Pallaresa, is a big wall of concrete holding back a long, green-blue lake in a narrow valley.
Read the complete Antona I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Antona I comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. 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 Monderes.
The plain of Lleida is one of the great orchards of Spain, a flat, fertile basin of peach, pear and apple trees, irrigated by canals drawn from the Segre. Alfarràs, Algerri and Almenar are villages in this agricultural world, set among fields and ditches on the edge of Catalonia, where the green plain begins to rise towards the dry hills of the Montsec to the north. In spring the orchards bloom in pink and white, and in late summer the fruit lorries crowd the roads. It is not dramatic scenery, but it is a landscape built by water, and the canals, including the long Canal d'Urgell and the canal of Aragon and Catalonia, are the reason it exists.
Read the complete Monderes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monderes sits at 172 km, 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 comes up about 304 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 369 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. Next is back through Antona I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Antona I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Antona I, 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 464 km.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → Antona I is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Antona I → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → Cova del Cogulló is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → Monderes is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monderes → back through Cova del Cogulló is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Cogulló → back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → back through Antona I is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Antona I → Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.