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.
427 km from Millares to Millares, about 10 h 10 of riding. It goes by way of Peñon de los machos, Abric de Tortosillas, Olula and Abrigo del Buen Aire I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abrigo de Rosser
Near Bicorp, in the dry, folded hills of inland Valencia, one of the most famous images in prehistoric art was found in 1920: a figure clinging to ropes on a cliff, reaching into a hole surrounded by bees, a honey gatherer painted thousands of years ago in the Cuevas de la Araña. The Abrigo de Rosser lies in the same rugged area of the Canal de Navarrés and the Júcar gorges, one of many shelters with Levantine paintings in this region, and together they form part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. Bicorp has a small interpretation centre, and guided visits to some shelters can be arranged.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de Rosser is where the day begins. Next is Peñon de los machos.
2. Peñon de los machos
Cofrentes is a village at the confluence of two rivers, the Júcar and the Cabriel, in the interior of Valencia province, and it has a curious mix of attractions. Above it stands a castle on a crag. Nearby rises the Cerro de Agrás, the only recently active volcano in the Valencian Community, a dark cone of basalt in a landscape of limestone. And just outside the village, the cooling towers of the Cofrentes nuclear power station send plumes of steam into the sky. The Peñón de los Machos, a rocky outcrop with painted shelters, lies in the hills between Cofrentes, Jalance and Jarafuel.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Peñon de los machos comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric de Tortosillas.
3. Abric de Tortosillas
The Abric de Tortosillas lies in the mountains near Ayora, in the inland valley of Ayora-Cofrentes in Valencia, and its paintings of human figures and animals are part of the rich rock art of this region, part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin listing. Nearby, at Alpera in Albacete province, the Cueva de la Vieja holds one of the most famous Levantine panels, with dozens of figures, archers, deer and goats, and an interpretation centre in the village. The landscape here is dry and mountainous, with pine forests, cliffs and the valley of the Júcar river.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric de Tortosillas. Next is Olula.
4. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Olula, about halfway. Next is Abrigo del Buen Aire I.
5. Abrigo del Buen Aire I
Jumilla country is dry, wide and honest. The town sits in the far north of Murcia where it bulges up towards Albacete, surrounded by limestone sierras, almond groves and vineyards of Monastrell grapes that make some of the most powerful red wine in Spain. A few kilometres outside town, in the folds of these hills, lie a group of small rock shelters known as the Abrigos del Buen Aire. They belong to the long chain of prehistoric painted sites strung along the eastern side of the peninsula that UNESCO lists together as the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin.