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 482 km round trip from Benassal - roughly 9 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cova de Gargán, Castell de Villafamés, Peñón de Santo Espíritu and Barranc de la falaguera- Abric I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Maestrat is the high, rugged interior of the province of Castellón, a land of limestone plateaus, deep ravines and stone villages that seem to grow out of the rock. Near Benassal, the Barranc del Puig cuts into the hills, and its rock shelters contain prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO serial site of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. This area is one of the richest in Spain for Levantine rock art, and the nearby Valltorta gorge, between Albocàsser and Tírig, has some of the most famous paintings, including scenes of hunters chasing deer and wild goats. The Valltorta museum in Tírig explains the art and organises visits to the shelters.
Read the complete Barranc del Puig- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barranc del Puig- Abric I is where the day begins. Next is Cova de Gargán.
High in the interior of Castellón, where the coastal orange groves are long forgotten and the land climbs toward the Penyagolosa massif, the shelter known as Cova de Gargán sits in a country of limestone ledges, holm oak and dry-stone terraces. Vistabella del Maestrazgo is the nearest village, a handful of kilometres away on its high plateau, with Villahermosa del Río down in its valley to the other side and Lucena del Cid a little further south. It is quiet up here in a way that the coast never is.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova de Gargán comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castell de Villafamés.
Villafamés announces itself from a long way off: a village of white and ochre houses stacked up a hill of reddish rock, with the remains of a castle crowning the top. It stands a little inland from the coast of Castellón, roughly between Borriol, Cabanes and the beach town of Benicàssim, close enough to the sea that you can smell salt on a westerly breeze turning, yet already in that rumpled hill country that leads up into the Maestrat.
Read the complete Castell de Villafamés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Castell de Villafamés. Next is Peñón de Santo Espíritu.
Behind the orange groves of the Camp de Morvedre, a few kilometres inland from Sagunto, the land rises into the Sierra Calderona, a low range of pine woods, scrub and red sandstone that separates the coastal plain from the dry interior. The Peñón de Santo Espíritu is a rocky outcrop in these hills above the village of Gilet, and it carries prehistoric rock art in the Levantine tradition, the style of painted hunters, animals and human figures found in shelters along the Mediterranean side of Spain and listed by UNESCO as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The paintings are fragile and often protected, so do not expect to wander up and touch anything.
Read the complete Peñón de Santo Espíritu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peñón de Santo Espíritu, about halfway. Next is Barranc de la falaguera- Abric I.
Alginet sits in the Ribera Alta, the flat, fertile plain south of Valencia where the Júcar river spreads out among orange groves, rice fields and small towns. To the west, the plain meets the first hills of the interior, low ridges of limestone covered in pine and scrub. The Barranc de la Falaguera, the ravine of the fern, cuts into these hills near Alginet, Alfarp and Benifaió.
Read the complete Barranc de la falaguera- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barranc de la falaguera- Abric I sits at 205 km, about halfway. Next is back through Peñón de Santo Espíritu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peñón de Santo Espíritu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Peñón de Santo Espíritu comes up about 312 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Castell de Villafamés.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castell de Villafamés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 393 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Castell de Villafamés. Next is back through Cova de Gargán.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova de Gargán, late in the day. Next is Barranc del Puig- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Barranc del Puig- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 482 km.
Barranc del Puig- Abric I → Cova de Gargán is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → Castell de Villafamés is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castell de Villafamés → Peñón de Santo Espíritu is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Peñón de Santo Espíritu → Barranc de la falaguera- Abric I is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Barranc de la falaguera- Abric I → back through Peñón de Santo Espíritu is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Peñón de Santo Espíritu → back through Castell de Villafamés is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Castell de Villafamés → back through Cova de Gargán is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova de Gargán → Barranc del Puig- Abric I is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.