Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú)
Climb · Girona
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Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú) is a 21.2 km cycling climb averaging 4.5% (+1012 m), rising from 158 m to 1104 m in Girona.
21.2 km · +1012 m · 4.5% avg · ~12.2% max · 158 → 1104 m · 22 hairpins
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
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Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 12.2% (km 18.7–19.1).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 168 m | 1.0% |
| 2 | 194 m | 2.6% |
| 3 | 229 m | 3.5% |
| 4 | 265 m | 3.5% |
| 5 | 302 m | 3.6% |
| 6 | 343 m | 4.5% |
| 7 | 365 m | 2.2% |
| 8 | 326 m | -3.8% |
| 9 | 351 m | 2.5% |
| 10 | 387 m | 3.9% |
| 11 | 381 m | -0.6% |
| 12 | 438 m | 5.4% |
| 13 | 513 m | 8.0% |
| 14 | 608 m | 9.1% |
| 15 | 665 m | 5.8% |
| 16 | 746 m | 8.7% |
| 17 | 772 m | 2.4% |
| 18 | 824 m | 5.4% |
| 19 | 893 m | 7.3% |
| 20 | 990 m | 9.4% |
| 21 | 1083 m | 9.0% |
What it’s like to ride
Besalú's Romanesque bridge is the last flat thing you see: the road turns off for Beuda and lifts gently through farmland before the climbing starts in earnest at the village. From there it is narrow, quiet tarmac that never settles into a rhythm, dropping into a dip and rearing to over 10% around a single corner, with steep hairpins wound through forest where the only view is trees. The last 6.6 km are the real work, 7 to 10% with steeper pitches inside it, and roughly 3 km from the top the trees give out and the whole region opens: the Pyrenees with Canigó behind the summit, the lake at Banyoles below, the Costa Brava on a clear day. At the top there is the sanctuary itself, a bar-restaurant with a terrace (shut Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and a statue of the poet Jacint Verdaguer. Keep something back for the way down, because the road is narrow, twisting and blind in places, with cars coming up it.
History
The road exists to reach the sanctuary on the summit, which abbot Bernat had built between 1311 and 1318 for an image of the Virgin venerated on the mountain since at least 1222; the hostelry and rectory behind the church date from the 17th and 18th centuries. Jacint Verdaguer spent a month and a half there in the summer of 1884 and wrote about the place, and a statue of him now stands at the top. The track up the southern flank, the Beuda and Segueró side this climb follows, was only asphalted in 1996, and from 1997 the bishopric of Girona, the Albanyà council and the Generalitat rebuilt the hostelry and restaurant that riders stop at today.
Worth stopping near the climb
More climbs in Girona
Common questions
- How long and steep is Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú)?
- Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú) is a 21.2 km cycling climb averaging 4.5% (+1012 m), rising from 158 m to 1104 m in Girona.
- Where is Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 12.2%, between km 18.7 and km 19.1 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú) have?
- Mare de Déu del Mont (from Besalú) has 22 hairpin bends, counted from the road's map geometry (a hairpin here means at least 150 degrees of turning completed within 150 metres of road). Painted corner numbers on some climbs count gentler bends too, so the two figures can differ.