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 Tarragona it runs 313 km to Tarragona; allow about 4 h 18 of riding. The stops in between: Albi II / Balma dels Punts, Camino de la Cova Plana II and back through Albi II / Balma dels Punts. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Chariots in Tarragona raced beneath the walls of the upper city, and the great circus where they ran is still there, though it is hard to see as a whole, because the medieval and modern town grew over it. The Circus was built in the late first century AD, and it was well over three hundred metres long, with room for many thousands of spectators. Today you find its vaulted corridors under the Plaça de la Font and its curved stands incorporated into the buildings around it, with a tower, the Torre del Pretori, rising over one end. The legend says that Pontius Pilate was born here, or at least lived in the tower, a story with no historical basis but which the Tarragonans like to repeat.
Read the complete The Circus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Circus is where the day begins. Next is Albi II / Balma dels Punts.
L'Albi is a small village on a hill in Les Garrigues, the dry, olive-covered district southeast of Lleida, and its name appears in the archaeological record thanks to rock shelters in the area, including the Balma dels Punts, the shelter of the dots. The name suggests schematic paintings in the form of dots and lines, typical of the later phase of prehistoric art in the region, and the site is part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art. The shelters are small and fragile, and some can only be visited with a guide, so check with the town hall or a local interpretation centre before heading out.
Read the complete Albi II / Balma dels Punts write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Albi II / Balma dels Punts comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Camino de la Cova Plana II.
Three rivers come together near Mequinenza: the Ebro, flowing in from the west, and the Segre and Cinca, arriving together from the Pyrenees to the north. The meeting point, now swallowed by the reservoirs behind the dams, has always been a strategic place, and the much-restored castle on the hill above the town has watched over it for centuries. The Camino de la Cova Plana is a track in the hills east of town, towards the Catalan border, and the site recorded here is one of the many prehistoric rock shelters scattered across this dry, rugged landscape.
Read the complete Camino de la Cova Plana II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Camino de la Cova Plana II. Next is back through Albi II / Balma dels Punts.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Albi II / Balma dels Punts write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Albi II / Balma dels Punts, late in the day. Next is The Circus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Circus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Circus. That is the ride.
The Circus → Albi II / Balma dels Punts is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Albi II / Balma dels Punts → Camino de la Cova Plana II is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camino de la Cova Plana II → back through Albi II / Balma dels Punts is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Albi II / Balma dels Punts → The Circus is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.