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.
From Almansa it runs 270 km to Almansa; allow about 7 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Cueva de la Vieja, Peñon de los machos, Abrigo de Vicent and back through Peñon de los machos. 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.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Cueva de la Vieja comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete Peñon de los machos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Peñon de los machos. Next is Abrigo de Vicent.
For most of its length, the Júcar river in Valencia province runs through gorges, reservoirs and dry hills, and in the days before roads, the way to bring timber from the mountains to the coast was to float it. The woodsmen who did this were called gancheros, after the long hooked poles they used to push logs through rapids, and for centuries they took pine trunks down the Júcar and the Cabriel in spring floods, riding the logs and breaking jams. That trade ended in the twentieth century, but their memory is kept alive in villages like Millares and Bicorp. The shelter named for a man, Abrigo de Vicent, lies about five and a half kilometres from Bicorp, and carries painting in the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain.
Read the complete Abrigo de Vicent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de Vicent, about halfway. Next is back through Peñon de los machos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peñon de los machos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Peñon de los machos sits at 129 km, 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 comes up about 232 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Barranco del Cabezo del moro closes the day.
Barranco del Cabezo del moro → Cueva de la Vieja is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de la Vieja → Peñon de los machos is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peñon de los machos → Abrigo de Vicent is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de Vicent → back through Peñon de los machos is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Peñon de los machos → back through Cueva de la Vieja is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de la Vieja → Barranco del Cabezo del moro is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.