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 Quesada it runs 224 km to Quesada; allow about 6 h 26 of riding. On the way it passes Úbeda, Cerro de la Caldera and back through Úbeda. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cueva del Reloj
A cave with a clock in its name: nobody can tell you for certain why, but El Reloj, the shelter above the Quesada countryside in the province of Jaén, has been given that name since long before the archaeologists arrived. It lies four kilometres from the town of Quesada, on the western edge of the Sierra de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas, Spain's largest protected area. The area is thick with painted shelters, among them Cueva del Reloj, Las Covachicas and La Alamedilla, which appear together on the route and which belong to the rock art listed by UNESCO in 1998.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cueva del Reloj is where the day begins. Next is Úbeda.
2. Úbeda
In the middle of an ocean of olive trees, Úbeda rises on a ridge like a Renaissance city that took a wrong turn on its way to Florence. This town in the province of Jaén, along with its neighbour Baeza, was listed by UNESCO in 2003 for its sixteenth-century architecture, much of it the work of Andrés de Vandelvira, who built palaces, churches and chapels for wealthy noble families and royal officials. The Plaza Vázquez de Molina is the showpiece, a harmonious square lined with palaces and the extraordinary Sacra Capilla del Salvador, a funerary chapel built for Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Emperor Charles V.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Úbeda comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cerro de la Caldera.
3. Cerro de la Caldera
The Sierra Morena marks the end of Andalusia, the hilly rampart that the old road from Madrid had to cross before dropping into the Guadalquivir lowlands. Cerro de la Caldera, a hill near Aldeaquemada in the north-east of Jaén province, sits in the heart of this frontier, in a quiet landscape of holm oaks, cork oaks, rockrose scrub and sandstone outcrops. Rock shelters in these hills hold schematic and Levantine paintings, and the area is part of the wider World Heritage listing of Iberian rock art.