Banyoles and Fontcoberta from Girona

North out of Girona over the ramp at Sant Julià de Ramis, then the Terri valley all the way up: Cornellà del Terri, Camós, and the lake at Banyoles just short of halfway. This is the gentlest way to reach the lake from the city: no mountain in the middle, just a road that tilts upwards a metre at a time for twenty-five kilometres.

The profile shows it plainly. From kilometre ten to kilometre thirty-five the line climbs almost without a break, from seventy metres to the day’s high point just under two hundred and fifty, and hardly any of it is steep. The one real kick comes straight after the lake: a kilometre and a half at six and a half per cent up to the Fontcoberta plateau.

Then it pays you back. A long descent off Fontcoberta, a second pass by the water, and the quiet rolling lanes through Camós and Palol de Revardit before Sant Julià and the river path into the city. If you want the same lake with a mountain attached, that is Rocacorba; this is the version you can ride the day before, or the day after.