Why this ride
A 280 km round trip from Roda de Barà - roughly 4 h 04 in the saddle. It goes by way of Crypt at the Colònia Güell, Roca Roja and back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Triumphal Arch of Berá and Roca Roja
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 280 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 04
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Triumphal Arch of Berá
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Triumphal Arch of Berá is where the day begins. Next is Crypt at the Colònia Güell.
2. Crypt at the Colònia Güell
Few people ride out of Barcelona expecting to find Gaudí in a mill village, but that is exactly what waits at Santa Coloma de Cervelló, a short hop up the Llobregat from Sant Boi. The Colònia Güell was a textile colony founded by the industrialist Eusebi Güell, who moved his cotton works out of the city in the 1890s and built housing, a school, shops and a theatre for the workers around the factory. He asked his friend Antoni Gaudí for a church. Gaudí spent about ten years on the design and its foundations, and when money and the Güell family's enthusiasm ran out around 1914, only the lower level had been finished. That crypt is what you come to see.
Read the complete Crypt at the Colònia Güell write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crypt at the Colònia Güell comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roca Roja.
3. Roca Roja
Roca Roja, the red rock, is a fitting name for this corner of inland Catalonia, where sandstone and conglomerate cliffs glow rust-coloured in the evening light above pine forest and small terraced fields. The point lies in the hills between Querol and Mediona, where the comarques of Alt Camp, Alt Penedès and Anoia meet, a rugged, thinly populated upland that most people speed past on the motorway between Barcelona and Lleida without realising it exists.
Read the complete Roca Roja write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 136 km into the recorded legs you reach Roca Roja. Next is back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell.
4. back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crypt at the Colònia Güell write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell, late in the day. Next is Triumphal Arch of Berá.
5. Triumphal Arch of Berá
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Triumphal Arch of Berá write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Triumphal Arch of Berá. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Triumphal Arch of Berá to Crypt at the Colònia Güell
Triumphal Arch of Berá → Crypt at the Colònia Güell is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Crypt at the Colònia Güell to Roca Roja
Crypt at the Colònia Güell → Roca Roja is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roca Roja to back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell
Roca Roja → back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell to Triumphal Arch of Berá
back through Crypt at the Colònia Güell → Triumphal Arch of Berá is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.