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.
A 513 km round trip from Quesada - roughly 14 h 20 in the saddle. It goes by way of Úbeda, Cerro de la Caldera, La Alamedilla and back through Cerro de la Caldera. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Read the complete Cueva del Reloj write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Reloj is where the day begins. Next is 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.
Read the complete Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Úbeda comes up 60 km in. Next is 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.
Read the complete Cerro de la Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
121 km in you reach Cerro de la Caldera. Next is La Alamedilla.
Nobody lives close to this point, and that is its main fact. It lies in the eastern Sierra Morena, in the wild border country between Córdoba and Jaén, where holm oak and cork oak cover steep, empty hills and the nearest villages, Mestanza, Baños de la Encina and Cardeña, are all more than twenty-five kilometres away. The ride titles link it with the mercury mines of Almadén, whose Royal Forced Labour Gaol and miners' hospital are part of a UNESCO listing shared with Idrija in Slovenia, but Almadén lies far to the north-west, and the connection is a routing choice rather than a neighbourhood.
Read the complete La Alamedilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Alamedilla, about halfway. Next is back through Cerro de la Caldera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cerro de la Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cerro de la Caldera sits at 241 km, about halfway. Next is back through Úbeda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Úbeda comes up 302 km in. Next is Cueva del Reloj.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Reloj write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Reloj closes the day.
Cueva del Reloj → Úbeda is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Úbeda → Cerro de la Caldera is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cerro de la Caldera → La Alamedilla is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
La Alamedilla → back through Cerro de la Caldera is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cerro de la Caldera → back through Úbeda is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Úbeda → Cueva del Reloj is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.