Garraf to Foix

The first 20 km are flat tarmac along the Mediterranean coast. The route earns its keep where the path turns into the karst: a bucolic single track that softens you up before the climb to Puig de les Agulles bites. Loose rocks, steep lines, not the easiest climb in the parc but a fair test of legs and handling, and the descent off the back pays it all back.

A second climb sits at km 70, right after the Foix reservoir. Plan your fuelling around it. The small village of Castellet sits a few kilometres before the climb starts and is worth a detour for a coffee, an entrepà, or a bottle refill before you commit.

The rest is honest gravel cycling at its best: single track and fire road in rotation, alternating between exposed ridge views over the Penedès vineyards and shaded forest under coastal pine.

What this route really teaches you is the geography of the Catalan capital, in a way no map can. Barcelona sits in a basin pinched between two ridges and a river. Ride the perimeter and you feel why the city stops where it does, the mountains have always had the last word.

Water is reliable on the urban fringes (Castelldefels, Sant Pere de Ribes, Avinyó Nou) but sparse inside the Garraf massif. Best ridden October through May, Garraf has little shade and bakes in summer.