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 305 km round trip from Juneda - roughly 5 h 01 in the saddle. On the way it passes Cova del Tabac, Balma de les Ovelles and back through Cova del Tabac. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Les Garrigues is the dry, stony corner of western Catalonia, south-east of Lleida, a land of low hills, terraced olive groves, almond trees and stone huts, where the light is hard and the summers are hot. Roques Guàrdies II is a rock shelter in these hills near Juneda and Arbeca, with traces of prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, part of the World Heritage site of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula.
Read the complete Roques Guàrdies II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roques Guàrdies II is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 164 km into the recorded legs you reach Balma de les Ovelles. Next is back through Cova del Tabac.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova del Tabac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova del Tabac, late in the day. Next is Roques Guàrdies II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roques Guàrdies II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Roques Guàrdies II. That is the ride.
Roques Guàrdies II → Cova del Tabac is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Tabac → Balma de les Ovelles is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balma de les Ovelles → back through Cova del Tabac is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Tabac → Roques Guàrdies II is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.