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.
A 389 km round trip from Bicorp - roughly 8 h 07 in the saddle. The stops in between: Barranco del Cabezo del moro, Cueva de la Vieja, Olula and back through Cueva de la Vieja. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 Cueva de la Vieja.
In 1910 a local man led researchers to a shallow shelter above the plain of Alpera in Albacete, and the paintings they found there became some of the best known examples of Levantine rock art in Spain. The Cueva de la Vieja shows archers with feathered headdresses, women in long skirts, deer and goats, all painted with a sense of movement that still feels immediate. The nearby Cueva del Queso holds more figures. Both are part of the UNESCO listing for the rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean, and guided visits run from the village, so check times with Alpera's tourist office.
Read the complete Cueva de la Vieja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 147 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de la Vieja. Next is Olula.
Caudete and Almansa sit in a corridor of land where Castile-La Mancha, Valencia and Murcia meet, and for centuries this was frontier country, where kingdoms and armies passed and fought. Olula is a point in the hills near Caudete, linked on the rides with rock-art shelters in the surrounding sierras, part of the extensive UNESCO listing of prehistoric art in Mediterranean Spain.
Read the complete Olula write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Olula, about halfway. Next is back through Cueva de la Vieja.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de la Vieja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de la Vieja sits at 152 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 283 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Abric de las Sabinas closes the day.
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 → Cueva de la Vieja is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de la Vieja → Olula is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Olula → back through Cueva de la Vieja is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de la Vieja → back through Barranco del Cabezo del moro is 39 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.