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.
418 km from Benassal to Benassal, about 8 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Galeria del Roure, Las Rozas I, Abric del mas de Barberà and Los Estrechos I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abric de les Dogues
Benassal sits on a high shelf of the Alt Maestrat, over seven hundred metres up, and the cool, clear air has long made it a summer retreat from the coastal heat. The town has a spa tradition, with springs whose water is bottled and sold across the region, and a medieval centre of stone arcades and Gothic doorways that can stand a slow walk. The Abric de les Dogues, about two and a half kilometres away, is one of the painted shelters scattered through these hills, with Levantine art that UNESCO lists among the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de les Dogues is where the day begins. Next is Galeria del Roure.
2. Galeria del Roure
Morella rises from the plateau of the Ports like something from a dream: a walled town wrapped around a rocky hill, crowned by a castle, with the Gothic basilica of Santa María la Mayor in the middle, and two kilometres of medieval walls with towers and gates running around the base. It is one of the most impressive historic towns in Spain, and the Galeria del Roure, a rock shelter about four kilometres away, is part of the cluster of prehistoric sites around Morella, including Morella la Vella, one of the important rock-art sites of the Valencian region, all part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art. The shelters are small and some are protected, so ask at the tourist office in town about visits.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Galeria del Roure comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Las Rozas I.
3. Las Rozas I
The upper valley of the Guadalope in Teruel is a place where limestone has been folded, cut and carved into an extraordinary array of shapes: cliffs, gorges, natural arches and pinnacles, with the river winding between them in places of startling green. Near Castellote, the painted shelter labelled Las Rozas I is one of the sites of Levantine rock art listed by UNESCO. Its figures are faint and fragile, but they speak of people who hunted deer and ibex in these same valleys thousands of years ago.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 107 km into the recorded legs you reach Las Rozas I. Next is Abric del mas de Barberà.
4. Abric del mas de Barberà
Alcañiz is the capital of the Bajo Aragón, a region of olive groves, cereal fields and dry hills crossed by the Guadalope river in the south-east of Aragón. The town is crowned by a castle built for the Order of Calatrava, now a parador, and its main square, with a Gothic loggia and the town hall, is one of the finest in the region. The shelter of the Mas de Barberà lies in the hills just outside town, toward Castelserás and Calanda.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric del mas de Barberà, about halfway. Next is Los Estrechos I.
5. Los Estrechos I
Los Estrechos means the narrows, and the name fits the country around Albalate del Arzobispo, in the Bajo Aragón, where the Martín river squeezes through limestone gorges on its way to the Ebro. The landscape is dry and open, a mixture of olive groves, almond terraces and low scrub, with sudden canyons and cliffs. The Martín valley is protected as a cultural park, because it holds a remarkable series of rock shelters with Levantine and Schematic paintings, some of which belong to the Mediterranean-arc group that UNESCO listed in 1998.