Flaçà, Púbol and Corçà from Girona

Out of the city down the Ter valley, flat and fast, to Flaçà at kilometre twenty-one, thirty-six metres above the sea and the lowest point of the day. Everything that follows is the Empordà proper: small roads between stone villages, none of them busy, most of them signposted in the direction you are not going.

Púbol at kilometre thirty-five, with the castle Dalí bought for Gala, then La Pera, Corçà, and Monells with its arcaded square at forty-two. Madremanya at forty-four is where the ground starts tilting for good. This is where the eight hundred metres of climbing come from: not from one col but from twenty ramps of a few hundred metres each, the kind that never show up on a profile and are felt in the legs by the end.

Home along the river through Bordils, Celrà and Sant Julià de Ramis, and then the sting: the road kicks up at Campdorà at kilometre sixty-two, the first ramp of the Els Àngels (route 02) climb, exactly when you had decided the ride was over. If you want these villages without that ending, the Volta a Gualta (route 20) stays out on the flat for longer.