CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
483 km from Bicorp to Bicorp, about 10 h 33 of riding. The stops in between: Barranco del Cabezo del moro, Cantos de la Visera I, Abrigo del Canto Blanco and Abrigo de las Enredaderas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Bicorp is the village to head for, and it is worth the ride for the name alone. It is a small place in the Canal de Navarrés, the inland Valencian country where the hills fold into one another and nobody has ever made a postcard of them. This is also the country of the famous Cuevas de la Araña, the Spider Cave near Bicorp, where a painted figure on a rock face is shown gathering honey from a crevice with ropes or vines. Of all the Levantine paintings, that scene is probably the one most often reproduced, and it reminds you that the people who painted these walls were gatherers and hunters with a keen eye for small domestic tasks.
Read the complete Abric de las Sabinas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric de las Sabinas is where the day begins. Next is Barranco del Cabezo del moro.
Almansa is one of those towns you see from the motorway and do not stop at, and that is a mistake. Its castle is spectacular, a Gothic fortress built on a sharp limestone outcrop right in the middle of town, looking exactly like a child's drawing of a castle. Around it spreads a wide plain at about seven hundred metres, the meeting point of the Valencian, Murcian and Castilian lands, and a few kilometres out in the surrounding hills lies the ravine known as the Barranco del Cabezo del Moro.
Read the complete Barranco del Cabezo del moro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barranco del Cabezo del moro comes up about 101 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cantos de la Visera I.
Monte Arabí rises from the high plain north of Yecla like a ship run aground, a lonely mass of sandstone with flat top and fluted sides, and locals have told stories about it for centuries: Moorish treasure, enchanted caves, a hidden city. The real treasure is painted. The Cantos de la Visera shelters on its slopes hold prehistoric rock art, including Levantine figures of animals and schematic signs, and they belong to the great series of Mediterranean rock art sites listed by UNESCO. There are also strange carved holes and basins in the rock, whose purpose is still debated.
Read the complete Cantos de la Visera I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Cantos de la Visera I. Next is Abrigo del Canto Blanco.
Jumilla is wine country, and you know it as soon as you arrive. The town sits in the north of the Murcia region, surrounded by a high, dry plateau of vineyards growing the Monastrell grape, which produces powerful, dark red wines. A castle tops the hill above the old town, and the bodegas on its outskirts welcome visitors. The Abrigo del Canto Blanco, the shelter of the white stone, lies in the hills about five kilometres away.
Read the complete Abrigo del Canto Blanco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Canto Blanco, about halfway. Next is Abrigo de las Enredaderas.
Where the Río Segura squeezes through the sandstone and limestone ridges of northern Murcia, between Calasparra and Cieza, the valley turns into a canyon of orange and grey rock with narrow green strips of reeds and orchard along the water. The Abrigo de las Enredaderas, a rock shelter, lies twelve kilometres or so from both towns, in dry hills of pine, rosemary and esparto grass that smell sharply of resin on a hot day.
Read the complete Abrigo de las Enredaderas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de las Enredaderas sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo del Canto Blanco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Canto Blanco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo del Canto Blanco comes up about 287 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cantos de la Visera I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cantos de la Visera I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 326 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cantos de la Visera I. Next is back through Barranco del Cabezo del moro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Barranco del Cabezo del moro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Barranco del Cabezo del moro, late in the day. Next is Abric de las Sabinas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de las Sabinas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 483 km.
Abric de las Sabinas → Barranco del Cabezo del moro is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Barranco del Cabezo del moro → Cantos de la Visera I is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cantos de la Visera I → Abrigo del Canto Blanco is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Canto Blanco → Abrigo de las Enredaderas is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de las Enredaderas → back through Abrigo del Canto Blanco is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Canto Blanco → back through Cantos de la Visera I is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cantos de la Visera I → back through Barranco del Cabezo del moro is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Barranco del Cabezo del moro → Abric de las Sabinas is 107 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.