Transcatalunya: Avià– Prats de Lluçanès

A section of the long TransCatalonia route that starts in Avià, where the El Berguedà MTB Centre is located, and ends in Prats de Lluçanès, where the El Lluçanès MTB Centre is located.

A section of the long-distance Transcatalunya route. Leave the reception point of the El Berguedà MTB Centre in Avià along the road to Berga (C-26). Turn off after a few metres, down different streets and paths, some of which are tarmacked, until you reach the hermitage of Santa Maria d'Avià.

Continue downhill until Graugés lake, which you ride around and take the tarmacked street to the road leading to Cal Rosal. Some points of this section coincide with different routes of El Berguedà MTB Centre. In the village of Cal Rosal, cross the road (C-16) and, at the roundabout, take the trail (El Llobregat greenway) alongside the road and, after the second tunnel and over the cattle grid alongside the fencing of the trail, you begin the long climb with some steep and rather stoney slopes to El Mascaró.

The greenway partially followed reaches the Sant Quirze de Pedret bridge, riding in the opposite direction to red route number two of El Berguedà MTB Centre.   From the El Mascaró country house, you start a descent before climbing again after a few kilometres, surrounded by forests, towards the hermitage of Sant Pere de Portella and the village of La Quar. From here on, you will come to several climbs and desents until you reach the Merlès stream trail where you turn right, making the most of the gentle descent to recharge your batteries for the next ascent.

Around three kilometres after Riera de Merlès campsite, leave the trail and begin the climb to Sant Climent de la Riba, Los Eixuts mountain and mount Martorell, a point from where you begin the descent surrounded by farmland and forests and heading for the important architectural site of the village of Lluçà. Here you follow a short section of tarmacked road before continuing downhill.

Carry on downhill to the El Marcusses country house, where you will pass the stream before starting the climb to the Els Garlics sierra and then downhill and back uphill, with a view of Prats de Lluçanès, before coming to El Lluçanès MTB Centre, the end of the stage.