Coves Roges Abric I and Pinós

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Coves Roges Abric I

   Planes looks like a village that has been arguing with gravity for a thousand years and winning. Its houses climb a hill crowned by the remains of a Moorish castle, and the whole place overlooks a valley of olive and almond terraces that falls toward the Beniarrés reservoir. The Coves Roges, the red caves, lie in the broken limestone country around here, and the first of their shelters carries prehistoric paintings, part of the scattered rock art of the Valencian mountains. The colour in the name is not poetry: the rock itself is stained a warm iron red.

   Read the complete Coves Roges- Abric I write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Coves Roges Abric I is where the day begins. Next is Barranc del Xorquet.

2. 2. Barranc del Xorquet

   Ask a cyclist on the Costa Blanca about Coll de Rates and watch their face change. The pass road climbing from Parcent toward Tàrbena is a pilgrimage for professional teams in winter training, and it lies only a few kilometres from the Barranc del Xorquet, one of the ravines in the tangled limestone hills behind the coast. This is an area rich in prehistoric rock art: the shelters at Pla de Petracos near Castell de Castells hold some of the best examples of the so-called macro-schematic style, big abstract human figures painted in red thousands of years ago, and the ravines around here hide further sites.

   Read the complete Barranc del Xorquet write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Barranc del Xorquet comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pinós.

3. 3. Pinós

   Inland from the busy coast of the Marina Alta, behind Benissa and Calp, the land folds into a series of steep, terraced valleys where almond and olive trees cling to dry-stone walls and white farmhouses sit among the pines. Pinós is a rural area in the hills near Benissa, Senija and Jalón, and the rides link it to the rock-art shelters of the barrancs, the ravines that cut through the limestone of this region, part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean prehistoric art. The exact contents of the nearby shelters are for specialists, but the landscape itself has a quiet, timeless beauty, especially in the soft light of late afternoon.

   Read the complete Pinós write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Pinós. Next is back through Barranc del Xorquet.

4. 4. back through Barranc del Xorquet

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Barranc del Xorquet write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Barranc del Xorquet, late in the day. Next is Coves Roges Abric I.

5. 5. Coves Roges Abric I

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Coves Roges- Abric I write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Coves Roges Abric I. That is the ride.