22 km and 1600 meters of positive difference

On the night of November 30 to December 1, 2019 the “Rosa del Nord” Walk and Race was celebrated, in memory of people persecuted by the Catalan Pyrenees mountains seeking freedom during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 and the second World War 1942-45.

In particular, we take a memory of an expedition in which St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer was visiting, who entered Andorra on the night of December 1 to 2, 1937.

La Rosa del Nord corresponds approximately to the last stage of this expedition: 22 km of course and 1,600 meters of positive accumulated difference, that goes from the Bellestar Agrarian School to Sant Julià de Lòria.

La Rosa del Nord consists of two modes: La Caminada (with about 20 participants) and La Raza (with about 80 participants). The race is for couples with three modalities: male, female and mixed.

The organization was run by Gerard Riart and Maria Segarra, from the Andorran company VSL Sports, and by Toni Cucurull, from the Association of Friends of the Camí de Pallerols de Rialb a Andorra. For the success of the celebration, more than 25 volunteers participated.

Next we enclose the list of the winners of the three modalities:

Male couples

1. Albert Escales i Martí Lázaro 2:13:04

2. Tom Donnenwirth and Robin Juillaguet 2:18:26

3. Guillem Campeny and Xavier Jové 2:26:32

Female couples

1. Mònica Comas and Roser Español 2:59:51

2. Laura Larregola and Sandra Almeida 3:36:18

3. Teresa Forn and Núria Villegas 3:54:18

Mixed pairs

1. Gonzalo Fernández and Queralt Riba 2:46:41

2. Xavi Mas and Maria Bastida 3:11:05

3. Sabrina Solana and Gerard Berroya 3:11:56

It should be noted that this year, in its 6th edition, the speed record has been slowed down with a time of 2:13.04, while the previous record was 2017 with 2:23:55.

As every year, this was also a success. The people very happy and want to come back next year.