Girona airport loop: Vilobí and Cassà

Out through Vilablareix and Aiguaviva, and by kilometre thirteen you are alongside the airport. That stretch of road is the local time trial course: wide, straight, well surfaced, and with a plane coming in low over your shoulder every twenty minutes or so. If you have numbers to hit, this is where people hit them.

Past the airport the road lifts gently towards Sant Dalmai, which at a touch under two hundred metres is the highest point of the whole ride, and then tips down again to Vilobí d’Onyar and Riudellots. Nothing here is steep enough to be called a climb; the profile is a set of long shallow waves and that is the point of the route.

Cassà de la Selva comes at kilometre forty-one, and from there it is Llambilles, Campllong and Quart back into the city. Three hundred and ninety-six metres of climbing in fifty-six kilometres makes this the flattest loop in the collection: a recovery day, a first day off the plane, or winter base miles without a single excuse to stop pedalling. For the same corner with a bit more in it, take Cassà and Sant Andreu Salou (route 21).