Group road cycling in Barcelona
The meeting point is in Barcelona; the ride, hardly ever. You leave the city either upwards or along the coast and twenty minutes later there are no traffic lights, which is enormous luck and also why riding alone here is a worse idea than elsewhere: these are shared roads, and busy ones.
Which way people head
- Collserola
- The climb at home. Vallvidrera, l'Arrabassada and Tibidabo are the three ramps everyone knows by heart, and the first thing any new group finds out about itself.
- The Garraf
- South along the coast, past Castelldefels. A corniche road above the sea, dry and windy, and the usual destination for a long ride that doesn't want mountains.
- The Maresme and inland
- North, with the train following the coast in case the day goes wrong. From there you turn inland the moment you want to convert a flat ride into one with climbs.
- Montserrat
- The big day, the one that gets retold for months. It starts in Barcelona and gets done in a group for a practical reason as well as a social one: it's a lot of hours, and there are stretches where sitting in decides whether you make it.