If you ever visit Barcelona and you love roadcycling, you will like to know the best roadbike tours in Barcelona. We are lucky enough to have here lots of cycling routes that make cycling a very popular activity for locals.
In spite of being a big city, there are plenty of roads with scarce traffic that can make a bike ride very enjoyable. Obviously, the weekend is the best time of the week to go out for a safe bike ride around Barcelona.
But let’s go straight into it, what are the best roadcycling routes that you can do around Barcelona?
These are our favourites routes:
- A simple, but very popular route is the Parpers loop. A classic ride for locals. Coll de Parpers is a nice and easy climb northern Barcelona in
Coll de Parpers Serralada del Prelitoral range of mountains. A few years ago it was buit a tunnel to avoid the pass, and now the road has become a sort of cycling road with no traffic, with the characteristic abandoned oil station on top. The recommended loop from Barcelona goes along the flat coastal road (Masnou, Premià, Vilassar) and then heading inland to climb Coll de Parpers. Then back to Barcelona from La Roca del Valles then to Montcada i Reixach. From that point you get the nice bike path following the river Besos, the best way to enter the city. All in all, the route is about 70 km long, depending on the exact starting location.
- The climb to Tibidabo is simply a must if you are a cyclist and you are in Barcelona. You can see the church on top from all over the city. How could you miss to get up there with your bike? The pictures with you on top and the city back down there, or with the famous church on your back, is a must. Usually most of the locals do the loop including “Forat del Vent” climb (road from Barcelona to Cerdanyola del Valles) and then climb to Tibidabo from Sant Cugat. It is a nice loop with little traffic and great views. One of the best roadbike tours in Barcelona.
And if you had a list of “do’s”, I will also mention a list of “don’ts”. Let me remind you, readers, that this is a subjective list, based on my likes and dislikes.
My list of don’ts:
- Montserrat from Barcelona. It might sound weird, but trust me, getting to Montserrat can be dangerous on busy roads. Montserrat is an amazing place, but it is much better to ride from the bottom of the mountain (Monistrol de Montserrat) and then doing a loop surrounding the mountain. Nice, solitaire, safe, no traffic. Also, if you decide to go, avoid the week end, as there could be much traffic on the climb to Montserrat Monastery. Plenty of tourists and locals visiting the famous small black virgin.
- Heading south to Penedes wine region can be also a tough ride in terms of traffic. Again, like Montserrat, the destination point is beautiful, in the case of Penedes region, plenty of vineyards, wineries and little roads to enjoy the cycling, but the way to get there (usually N340 big road, and the busy Ordal pass) is not what I would consider a nice cycling experience.
- And then my most “not recommended” bikeride from Barcelona is also a very suprising one for some people: Sitges! The coastal road from Barcelona to Sitges is a fantastic road by the sea… but not on your bike. This road, called “Costes del Garraf” by the locals, is very busy with no shoulder (the only alternative option is the C-32 toll road). No need to say anymore. The only moment it could be ridden (in my humble opinion) is very early in the morning during the weekend. Other than that, imagine a group of 10 cyclists let’s say. You will have a long queue of cars waiting to overtake the group, or taking risks to overtake the group. No, you don’t want that…
Then, to be clear, this list of don’ts doesn’t mean that all them 3 destiantions are not great for cycling. On the other side, they are! But just take the train or take the van and start the ride outside the busy roads. All of them are great: Sitges, Penedes, or Montserrat.
