Behind the orange groves of the Camp de Morvedre, a few kilometres inland from Sagunto, the land rises into the Sierra Calderona, a low range of pine woods, scrub and red sandstone that separates the coastal plain from the dry interior. The Peñón de Santo Espíritu is a rocky outcrop in these hills above the village of Gilet, and it carries prehistoric rock art in the Levantine tradition, the style of painted hunters, animals and human figures found in shelters along the Mediterranean side of Spain and listed by UNESCO as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The paintings are fragile and often protected, so do not expect to wander up and touch anything.
The name comes from the Franciscan monastery of Santo Espíritu del Monte, founded in the fifteenth century in a quiet valley above Gilet and still home to a community of friars. Its gardens, cloister and pine-shaded surroundings make a peaceful stop, and the walks from there into the Calderona are fragrant with rosemary and resin. Valencians come here at weekends to escape the coast's heat and noise.
For riders, the Calderona offers short but satisfying roads: the climbs from Gilet and Serra up toward the Portacoeli monastery and over to the Turia valley are narrow, twisty and usually quiet on weekdays, with views back toward the sea. Watch out for cyclists on weekends, gravel on bends and the odd wild boar at dusk. Summer brings high fire risk, and some forest tracks can be closed.
Sagunto, seven kilometres away, is where to refill the tank and eat. The town's hilltop castle stretches along the ridge for nearly a kilometre, with layers of Iberian, Roman, Moorish and Christian walls, and the Roman theatre below was controversially restored. In 219 BC Hannibal besieged Saguntum, starting the Second Punic War. A plate of paella valenciana or arroz al horno in a village restaurant makes the perfect end to a hill loop.