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.
297 km from Ares del Maestre to Ares del Maestre, about 6 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Calçaes del matá, Abric del mas dels Ous, Valmayor V and back through Abric del mas dels Ous. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cingle del Puig
Puig is the Valencian word for a hill, and it is slightly funny to find it attached to a cliff, because the Cingle del Puig is not so much a hill as the sheer lip of a limestone terrace over a ravine. It lies above the Barranc de la Gasulla, less than six kilometres from Benassal and not far from Ares del Maestrat, a village that sits on a crag at more than a thousand metres and looks across the plateau like a ship on a rock. The high Maestrat has a stark, mineral beauty, with grey stone, dark green juniper and enormous skies.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cingle del Puig is where the day begins. Next is Calçaes del matá.
2. 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 comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric del mas dels Ous.
3. Abric del mas dels Ous
Xert is the kind of village you pass through on the way to somewhere else and then wonder why you did not stop. It lies in the Baix Maestrat in northern Castellón, below a ridge of bare limestone, with the old village climbing the slope and a newer part down by the road. The shelter called the Abric del Mas dels Ous, the shelter of the farmhouse of the eggs, is out in the dry hills nearby, between Xert, Canet lo Roig and Rosell.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric del mas dels Ous. Next is Valmayor V.
4. Valmayor V
The Matarraña, in the far east of Teruel province, is often called the Tuscany of Aragon, and for once the comparison holds. Stone villages crown hilltops above olive groves and vineyards, rivers run clear through limestone gorges, and the light in the evening is honey-coloured. Valmayor is a ravine in the hills here, between Valderrobres, Fuentespalda and the Catalan border, and its shelters hold prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. As elsewhere, they are protected, and visits are best arranged through local tourist offices.