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 Albocàsser it runs 254 km to Albocàsser; allow about 5 h 51 of riding. The stops in between: Racó d'en Gil, Els Covarxos, Barranco de Gibert II and Racó de Nando. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Calçaes del matá
Ares del Maestrat sits on a crag so steep that the village seems glued to the rock, and below it, in the Gasulla gorge, the Cingle de la Mola Remigia holds some of the most famous Levantine paintings in Spain, scenes of archers, hunters and even an execution. Calçaes del Matà is a shelter in the same broad landscape near Albocàsser, and with the Gasulla and Valltorta sites it belongs to the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The shelters here are reached on foot, and guided visits can be booked through the local museums.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Calçaes del matá is where the day begins. Next is Racó d'en Gil.
2. Racó d'en Gil
There is a small triangle of country in the Alt Maestrat, between Benassal, Catí and Albocàsser, where the hills fold into narrow ravines and the stone walls of old terraces climb every slope. Racó d'en Gil, a name meaning something like Gil's corner, lies in this landscape, and it sits within easy reach of the Valltorta gorge, the place that put Levantine rock art on the map.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Racó d'en Gil comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Els Covarxos.
3. Els Covarxos
Culla stands on a hilltop in the interior of Castellón, a medieval village of stone houses and narrow lanes wrapped around the remains of a castle. In the thirteenth century, after the Christian conquest, the area was granted to the Knights Templar, and later to the Order of Montesa, which explains the old walls and the sense of a place built for defence. Below the village, among the ravines and terraces, the rock shelter of Els Covarxos holds prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Like many such shelters, it is protected and not easy to find on your own; enquire locally before setting off on foot.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Els Covarxos. Next is Barranco de Gibert II.
4. Barranco de Gibert II
Up on the roof of the Maestrazgo, where Teruel and Castellón meet, the land rises above fourteen hundred metres into a bleak, beautiful plateau of pasture, pine and limestone. Mosqueruela, on the Aragonese side, is one of the highest villages in the area, and Vilafranca, on the Valencian side, sits in a valley below. The Barranco de Gibert cuts into the hills between them, close also to La Iglesuela del Cid, and its second shelter holds prehistoric paintings.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Barranco de Gibert II, about halfway. Next is Racó de Nando.
5. Racó de Nando
Racó means corner in Valencian, and this really is a corner: a fold in the limestone hills between Benassal, Culla and Vilafranca, in the interior of Castellón where the coast's crowds feel a continent away. The rock shelter here is one of the many small sites of Levantine prehistoric painting that together make up a UNESCO World Heritage listing, and like most of them it is modest, fenced and best seen with a local guide. What lingers is less the painting than the idea of hunters choosing this exact overhang, with water close by and a view down the valley, and leaving their mark on it.