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.
493 km from Ares del Maestre to Ares del Maestre, about 9 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of 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. The line favours views over speed.
Ares del Maestrat hangs on a rocky crest in northern Castellón, one of the highest villages in the region, with a ruined castle above and a grid of narrow, stone-paved streets below. A few kilometres away the Gasulla ravine cuts a deep, wild line through the limestone, and its cliffs hold some of the great shelters of Levantine rock art. Cova Remigia, which has a number of separate shelters, or abrics, is among the best-known, with dozens of figures of archers, deer and ibex, many of them captured in mid-run. The Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula has been on the UNESCO list since 1998.
Read the complete Cova Remigia- Abric l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova Remigia- Abric l 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 53 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 96 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 206 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 317 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 397 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 Cova Remigia- Abric l.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova Remigia- Abric l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 493 km.
Cova Remigia- Abric l → Cova de Gargán is 53 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 70 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 80 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 → Cova Remigia- Abric l is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.