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.
348 km from Zaragoza to Zaragoza, about 5 h 05 of riding. On the way it passes Iglesia de Santa María, Abside, Cañada de marco and back through Abside. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Zaragoza is a city of brick. In the centuries after the Christian conquest of 1118, the Muslim craftsmen who remained and their descendants, the Mudéjars, built churches and towers across Aragon using brick, glazed tile and decorative patterns of geometric inlay, and the result is a style found nowhere else. In Zaragoza the brick apses and towers of the old churches, with their blind arcades and zigzag courses, are the best examples, and the Mudéjar architecture of Aragon is a World Heritage listing, first awarded in 1986 and extended in 2001. The apse at this stop is a piece of that heritage.
Read the complete Abside write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abside is where the day begins. Next is Iglesia de Santa María.
Somewhere in the folds of the Sierra de Algairén, south-west of Zaragoza, a bell tower pokes up above a cluster of ochre roofs, and that is your Iglesia de Santa María. Half the villages of Aragon have a church of that name, and this one does the job the others do: it marks the middle of a small place where the shop, the bar and the plaza all orbit the same square of stone. The nearest neighbours on the map are Cosuenda, Almonacid de la Sierra and Alpartir, each a few hundred souls, each about nine kilometres off.
Read the complete Iglesia de Santa María write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Iglesia de Santa María comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abside.
The apse in question belongs to the collegiate church of Santa María in Calatayud, and it is one of the reasons UNESCO lists the Mudéjar architecture of Aragon as a whole. Mudéjar means the building style of Muslim craftsmen living under Christian rule after the reconquest, and in Calatayud they did wonderful things with humble brick: geometric patterns, lozenges and interlacing arches laid out in relief, glazed tiles catching the sun. Next to the apse rises an octagonal brick tower that is the town's signature, and behind it a cloister, all three named in the listing.
Read the complete Abside write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach Abside. Next is Cañada de marco.
Calamocha has a reputation in Spain, and it is not for its nightlife. This town in the Jiloca valley of Teruel province is one of the coldest places in the country in winter, a high, open basin where the air pools at night and frost bites hard. In summer that same altitude makes it pleasant when the coast is sweltering. The Cañada de Marco is a site in the hills just outside town, and the name hints at the old drove roads, the cañadas, that once carried flocks of sheep across Aragon between summer and winter pastures.
Read the complete Cañada de marco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cañada de marco, about halfway. Next is back through Abside.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abside write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abside sits at 233 km, about halfway. Next is back through Iglesia de Santa María.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Iglesia de Santa María write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Iglesia de Santa María comes up about 270 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abside.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abside write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abside closes the day.
Abside → Iglesia de Santa María is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Iglesia de Santa María → Abside is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abside → Cañada de marco is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cañada de marco → back through Abside is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Abside → back through Iglesia de Santa María is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Iglesia de Santa María → Abside is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.