sidestand wrote:Thanks Simon,
Have done both of those border crossings several times. B)
The French side up to the Col D'Ares has a pretty crap surface, but transforms totally on the Spanish side & is a joy to ride - mind you, I think it will be splattered with cowshit in late October
hmy: .
Think we'll go from Tautavel on the French side, over to Millas, then up the Tet valley to Mont Louis, then Puigcerda - down to Ripoll like you say.
If the weather is bad in the mountains, I'll take the coast road from Collioure to the Gulf of Roses & take it from there.
Ta for the route south of that - useful as I've never ridden south of Barcelona on that side of Spain.
We want to get from Tautavel to Malaga in 2 days - so thats about 350 miles a day - should be easy enough on a Fazer 1000 & a Fireblade
Yep, I was over the Coll d'Ares last year and the French surface is really bad - I'm not starting the old France vs. Spain thng, but it is an all too frequent occurence!
The Prades - Bourg-Madame- Puigcerda route is also better from Perpignan as it's dual carriageway all the way through the suburban dross until you reach 'proper' roads from Ille-sur-Têt.
If the weather is good try a little detour off the Ripoll roads via La Molina and La Pobla de Lillet, the pick up the road to Gosol, Tuixent and the Col de Jou - hint you turn off just before you get to La Molina!
From Col de Jou you have a nice ride to Solsona and then on to Ponts on the C14 (a horrible road that's worth avoiding) and the to Lleida from there. But a much better route is from Col de Jou to Pont de Nargo and then to Tremp and pick up the C13 there for its best stretch down to Camarasa - but you have to allow a coiple of hours from Col de Jou to Tremp.
If you're doing that kind of mileage it's a good idea to pick up the C13 and pass Lleida and on to the Ebro at Caspe, then head for Morella from La Mora and that's probably your base for the night. Morella is spectacular - I've always wanted to stay there but it's never at the right stage in my travels.
From there in it's up to you - a lot depends of where you're ending up. It's worth dipping up into the sierras and natural parks, e.g. and the Rio Mundo, Rio Seguro and Sierra de Cazorla, but there's quite a time issue there.
If you do go on the coast route a good way to make your westing is the C25 from Girona airport and split off from this as and when it suits. But be warned that there are big roadworks o long sections of this where theyre replacing he overtaking lanes on the hilly sections with dual carriageway, but there's no overtaking in the meantime and if you get stuck behind an underpowered truck you're in a convoy for hours!
Ho hum, all part of the fun :silly:
Regs
Simon
