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.
A 362 km round trip from Oliana - roughly 7 h 16 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cova del Cogulló, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars, Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés and back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 about 58 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 123 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. Next is Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés.
South of Lleida the irrigated orchards give way abruptly to dry, open steppe, and the little village of Alfés sits on the edge of that change. The Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés are rock paintings in a small sandstone shelter near the village, schematic designs in red pigment, mostly abstract lines, dots and simplified figures, that belong to the later, more symbolic phase of prehistoric art in eastern Spain, and they are included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean Basin rock art. They are modest to look at, but there is something powerful about seeing marks left by people thousands of years ago in such an open, wind-swept place.
Read the complete Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés, 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 sits at 167 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 305 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros closes the day.
Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros → Cova del Cogulló is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés → back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → back through Cova del Cogulló is 65 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 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.