The Pedraforca Loop

We started in Guardiola de Berguedà, a small village with everything you need before you commit: fountain, bakery, supermarket, café. From there the route heads north-west toward Bagà, and then the work begins, around 18 km of steady climbing with a few steep ramps thrown in. The reward is the view: the sheer north face of Pedraforca filling the skyline. Better still, once you top out you've done the bulk of the day's 1,790 m of climbing.

The drop off the top is fast, fun, and at times genuinely demanding. This is where the 5/5 technical rating comes from. The surface shifts under you from compact gravel to grass to loose stone, and you'll likely step off the bike once or twice. That's the deal when you ride this high. Eventually the trail spits you onto a road that rolls you down toward Gósol.

Gósol is the perfect mid-ride stop: a handful of cafés and a small shop around the main square, with its fountain, la Font de la Dona dels Pans. It's a hard place to leave. It also matters to art history far more than its size suggests. In the summer of 1906, Pablo Picasso holed up here for a few months with Fernande Olivier. There's a small Picasso centre in the village if you want the full story; otherwise just enjoy refilling your bottles in a place that nudged twentieth-century painting sideways.

Leaving Gósol toward Saldes, you swing onto the south face of Pedraforca, and the character flips. The land turns dry, almost desert-like in places. As you near Saldes the ground changes again. You ride past rock formations and then alongside the Riu de Saldes, where tall trees take over and the air cools. If you're the kind of rider who stops for a cold-water dip, this is your moment.

From Saldes the route bends north and follows the Riu Llobregat back to Guardiola de Berguedà, closing the loop.

The winters up here are snowy which means that riding this in the cold months isn't realistic. Spring and early autumn are the sweet spots. Summer works too, but it gets hot and there's little shade once you're high, so carry more water than you think you'll need.