Sant Pere de Rodes
Climb · Girona
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Sant Pere de Rodes is a 5.3 km cycling climb averaging 7.4% (+392 m), rising from 67 m to 458 m in Girona.
5.3 km · +392 m · 7.4% avg · ~10.3% max · 67 → 458 m · 8 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: 10.6% (km 2.4–2.8).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 124 m | 6.2% |
| 2 | 204 m | 7.9% |
| 3 | 280 m | 7.7% |
| 4 | 355 m | 7.5% |
| 5 | 442 m | 8.2% |
What it’s like to ride
The road tops out at about 517 m beside the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, and the two ways up feel like different climbs. From El Port de la Selva it is the harder one: seven hairpins, a ramp near 15% early on, a third kilometre that opens with almost half a kilometre close to 12%, and an exposed flank where the wind adds to the work. From Vilajuïga the road is wider and the asphalt better, barely 2% for the first kilometre before it settles at 7 to 8% with ramps near 10%, and four switchbacks arrive around kilometre six. Either way you climb through olive terraces and Cap de Creus scrub with the bay of El Port de la Selva opening below, the Gulf of Roses beyond it and the Pyrenees on a clear day. The tarmac finishes at the car park and the last couple of hundred metres to the monastery door are a stone track; the ruins of Sant Salvador de Verdera castle stand on the ridge above, and the monastery has a restaurant that runs bar service through the day.
History
The monastery at the top is far older than the road to it: the church was consecrated in 1022, and the ruined medieval village of Santa Creu de Rodes lies beside the last stretch of asphalt. The road itself dates from 1972, opened in parallel with the first archaeological recovery work on that village, which is how a site reached for centuries on foot became a climb you can ride. The Volta a Catalunya used it in 2025: on stage 2, Banyoles to Figueres, the Coll de Sant Pere de Rodes was the day's first-category climb at 7.7 km and 6.4%, taken from the El Port de la Selva side and crested with roughly 80 km to go, after which the drop through Garriguella brought the race back together for a bunch sprint won by Ethan Vernon.
More climbs in Girona
Common questions
- How long and steep is Sant Pere de Rodes?
- Sant Pere de Rodes is a 5.3 km cycling climb averaging 7.4% (+392 m), rising from 67 m to 458 m in Girona.
- Where is Sant Pere de Rodes steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 10.6%, between km 2.4 and km 2.8 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Sant Pere de Rodes have?
- Sant Pere de Rodes has 8 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.