CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Calamocha it runs 364 km to Calamocha; allow about 6 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros, Iglesia de Santa María, Abside and Rillo I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros.
The prehistoric painters of eastern Spain had a thing for archers. Across hundreds of rock shelters from Catalonia to Andalusia, they painted small, dynamic human figures drawing bows, chasing deer and goats, sometimes fighting each other, and these scenes of the so-called Levantine style are part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Shelters with names like the Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros, the shelter of the black archers, are scattered through the limestone hills of the province of Teruel and its neighbours in Aragon, often in remote ravines and protected by grilles.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros comes up 41 km in. 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.
82 km in you reach Iglesia de Santa María. 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.
Abside, about halfway. Next is Rillo I.
The Señorío de Molina is a high, cold, sparsely populated tableland on the boundary of Guadalajara and Aragon, and it feels like it, with big skies, wheat and sheep, wide valleys and villages of stone. Rillo, five or six kilometres from Molina de Aragón, sits at about a thousand metres on this plateau, where winters are among the harshest in Spain and snow can lie for weeks. Molina has a reputation as one of the coldest towns in the country, but a rider in June finds only a dry, bright warmth.
Read the complete Rillo I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rillo I sits at 165 km, 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 comes up 206 km in. 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.
247 km in you reach back through Iglesia de Santa María. Next is back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros, late in the day. Next is Cañada de marco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cañada de marco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 364 km.
Cañada de marco → Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros → Iglesia de Santa María is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Iglesia de Santa María → Abside is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abside → Rillo I is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Rillo I → back through Abside is 77 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 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Iglesia de Santa María → back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros → Cañada de marco is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.