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 Roda de Barà it runs 124 km to Roda de Barà; allow about 2 h 24 of riding. It goes by way of Tower of the Scipios, Abric de la Serra de la mussara and back through Tower of the Scipios. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For centuries traffic on the main coastal road of Catalonia drove straight through a Roman triumphal arch. The Arc de Berà stands on the line of the Via Augusta, the great Roman road from the Pyrenees to Cádiz, about twenty kilometres northeast of Tarragona, and until the road was diverted around it in the late twentieth century, cars and trucks passed under its single span. It was built at the end of the first century BC, and an inscription records that it was erected according to the will of Lucius Licinius Sura, a figure whose identity historians still discuss. It is part of the UNESCO listing for the Roman remains of Tarraco.
Read the complete Triumphal Arch of Berá write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Triumphal Arch of Berá is where the day begins. Next is Tower of the Scipios.
Rome built a road through Spain, and this tower stands beside what was left of it. The Torre dels Escipions, the Tower of the Scipios, is a tall, square funerary monument, about nine metres high in its present state, on the old line of the Via Augusta a few kilometres from Tarragona. It was built in the first century AD, and for a long time people thought it was the tomb of the Scipio brothers, the Roman generals who died fighting the Carthaginians in Spain around 211 BC. That story is almost certainly false, but the name stuck.
Read the complete Tower of the Scipios write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tower of the Scipios comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric de la Serra de la mussara.
Climb out of Reus on a clear morning and the Serra de la Mussara rises ahead like a wall, a limestone escarpment that holds up the edge of the Prades plateau and drops steeply to the plain of the Camp de Tarragona. The rock shelters along this cliff line, close to the village of Vilaplana, are part of the prehistoric painted landscape of eastern Spain. The best reason to stop, though, is the view: on a good day you look straight down over hazelnut orchards and olive groves to Reus, Tarragona and the sea.
Read the complete Abric de la Serra de la mussara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric de la Serra de la mussara. Next is back through Tower of the Scipios.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tower of the Scipios write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tower of the Scipios, late in the day. Next is Triumphal Arch of Berá.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Triumphal Arch of Berá write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Triumphal Arch of Berá. That is the ride.
Triumphal Arch of Berá → Tower of the Scipios is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tower of the Scipios → Abric de la Serra de la mussara is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de la Serra de la mussara → back through Tower of the Scipios is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tower of the Scipios → Triumphal Arch of Berá is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.