Probably, Transalpina is the best motorcycle road in Romania. The landscape is not so spectacular as the Transfagarasan, but has all the ingredients: 130km and all types of curves, from very wide and dust turns to very steep and tight hairpins. And it’s the highest paved road from Romania!
The road was finished in 1938 and inaugurated by King Carol the 2nd and because of this, the road is called “The king’s road”. In 2009 work began on modernization of the road. Even today the works are not 100% completed and there are still short segments with no asphalt and some other parts with no security parapets.
Segment 1: Sebes – Obarsia Lotrului, average speed 70-90km/h.
The first 20 km of the road, starting from Sebeș,
crosses a few villages, then after Sugag and all the way up to Obarsia Lotrului there are no more villages. After existing Sasciori, the landscape changes, and the hills begin. This first stretch of road until Obarsia Lotrului is full of wide curves, good for fast riding. In the last kilometers before Obarșia Lotrului there are some tight curves and 2 hairpins.
The road has a constant and small gradient from Sebeș towards Obarsia Lotrului and the asphalt is almost perfect. There are a few areas where the asphalt is a little bit bumpy and 2 small segments with no asphalt: one is 300 m long and the second is around 100 m.
The road crosses dense forests on 90-% of its length and as we get closer to Obarșia Lotrului the deciduous forests are replaced by coniferous forests. If you wish to admire the surroundings, there are 2 lakes, where we can look upon the mountains around: Lake Tau Bistra and Lake Oașa.
Segment 2: Obarșia Lotrului – Novaci, average riding speed 50-70 km/h.
This is the most spectacular part of Transalpina road. A few kilometers after Obarșia Lotrului, the road starts climbing towards the Urdele Pass: there are 10 hairpins one after the other that takes us from 1300 m altitude to 1700 m in just a few kilometers. Once we get to the alpine area, the climbing is a little bit softer and the view is awesome: we can admire the mountains all around us. The roads crosses for a few hundred meters the mountain ridge, then it descends to a large valley.
From here we have to climb to the Urdele mountain which is the highest point of this road (2145 m). The climb to Urdele is the landmark of this road with its 8 very tight and steep hairpins. Once we get to the top, we go around the Urdele Peak and we start descending to Ranca, first along the mountain side, and once we get to the Rânca skiing slope the descend gets steeper and there are some more hairpins.
From Rânca which is at 1600 m altitude, we start descending towards Novaci, the end point of Transalpina. The first few kilometers are relatively straight but then the road gets very windy and the last part of Transalpina is full of tight curves and hairpins. The asphalt is again very good and the road is very wide for a mountain road.
