MTB and gravel routes to enjoy sports and nature
Get your mountain bike or gravel bike ready, grab your helmet and water bottle and set off on an adventure. Whether you are alone or accompanied, enjoy some of the best routes in the province of Barcelona, discover the Penedès region, the famous Cavalls del Vent route or a route that will take you both to the sea and the mountains. Are you ready?
Penedès
The Penedès region offers many routes, which are very accessible, both for mountain biking and gravel biking. The Penedès 360 Original, for example, is a circular gravel route of 162 km, divided into four stages, with little technical difficulty. Starting and finishing in Vilafranca del Penedès, the 360 route will take you through rural areas and charming villages, such as Sant Jaume dels Domenys, Torrelles de Foix and Sant Sadurní d'Anoia.
The Penedès 360 All Mountain will take you through the region on trails, paths and tracks. Starting from Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, the route features a total of 180 kilometres and more than 4,000 m of positive gradient, divided into four stages of between 40 and 55 kilometres.
For both the Original and the All Mountain, the recommendation is to follow the directions of the Penedès 360. However, both routes lend themselves to adaptations, removing or adding stages to tailor it to your needs.
Berguedà
The Cavalls del Vent is surely one of the most iconic routes in our country, and doing it by mountain bike will allow you to discover the most impressive trails and villages of the Cadí-Moixeró Nature Park like never before. With a 225-km tour and more than 7,300 metres of accumulated positive gradient, the Cavalls del Vent is a highly demanding route, only suitable for the most experienced cyclists. However, the circuit can be done in three (for more experienced riders) or four stages, which allows you to distribute the kilometres, gradients and sections of technical difficulty more evenly. Furthermore, doing it in four stages will allow you to enjoy the route more and have time to visit small mountain villages such as Bagà, where the tour begins and ends.
Osona
The region of Osona is perfect for any mountain biking enthusiast, thanks to the dozens and dozens of signposted routes available that are suitable for all levels. In the Plana de Vic, for example, there are 11 routes, from the green ones (the easiest), such as the 8-km Vic-Gurb-Vic, to the more difficult ones (black), such as the Puigpelat-Sant Martí Xic-Puigpelat, a 43-km route with an accumulated gradient of 1,400 metres that will reveal historical elements dating back to the 11th century.
The Sau Collsacabra Valley, meanwhile, features almost twenty routes with more than 250 signposted kilometres, while the Lluçanès region offers eight routes with a total of 220.13 signposted kilometres. They are all colour-coded, according to their difficulty.
Osona is undoubtedly one of the regions where you will find more options of routes to fully enjoy your MTB.
Maresme
The Maresme's special feature is that, due to its terrain, you can enjoy both the sea and the mountains on the same route. In fact, there are many routes in the region, but the MTB-15 between Montnegre and the coast is particularly noteworthy precisely because it allows you to enjoy very diverse landscapes on the same route. The route, which is 43 km long and features an accumulated positive gradient of 900 metres, starts and finishes in Tordera. When you get on your bike, the path will take you uphill towards the north-eastern part of Montnegre, between Tordera and the old parish of Hortsavinyà. Then the track will take you down along the coast to Pineda de Mar and then back to the starting point, first through Malgrat de Mar and finally via Palafolls, where we recommend you make a short stop to visit its castle.
More information:
Penedès 360 Routes in the Maresme region
Pedalling in the Berguedà region
Routes in Osona
Cycling tourism in the regions of Barcelona