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.
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 Velez Rubio it runs 151 km to Velez Rubio; allow about 4 h 00 of riding. On the way it passes Lavadero Tello V, Molinos II, Lavadero Tello IV and back through Molinos II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Vélez-Rubio is a larger and busier place than its neighbour Vélez-Blanco, with seven thousand people, a lively main street, and a church that is a surprise in a town this size. The Church of the Encarnación, begun in the eighteenth century, has twin towers and a massive Baroque façade, usually described as the largest Baroque church in Almería, and its bulk dominates the roofs. It is a good place to start before riding up toward the mountains, because the fuel stations here are the nearest reliable ones for a long way.
Read the complete Cueva del Tio Labrador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Tío Labrador is where the day begins. Next is Lavadero Tello V.
Los Vélez, in the north of Almería, is wool and almond country, and its history is one of shepherds, noblemen and Moriscos. For centuries flocks of sheep moved between the winter grazing of the lowlands and the summer pastures of the high sierras along old drove roads, and the area had a thriving wool trade. The shelter here, one of a group around Vélez-Blanco, carries prehistoric paintings, belonging to the Levantine art tradition that UNESCO recognises.
Read the complete Lavadero Tello V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lavadero Tello V comes up 25 km in. Next is Molinos II.
Vélez-Blanco is a white town under a limestone wall, and the castle above it is one of the oddest in Spain. The Marquises of Los Vélez built it in the early sixteenth century, in a hurry to look both fortified and Italian, so the outside has round towers and the inside had a marble Renaissance courtyard that was later sold, piece by piece, and ended up in New York's Metropolitan Museum. Below the castle the town clings to the slope, with narrow lanes and a church, and the Sierra María-Los Vélez rises behind, a natural park of pine, juniper and bare crags. At about a thousand metres, it is cold in winter and delicious in summer.
Read the complete Molinos II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
49 km in you reach Molinos II. Next is Lavadero Tello IV.
Vélez-Blanco has a castle that has been in two countries. Built in the early sixteenth century by the first Marquis of los Vélez, it was a Renaissance palace of white marble inside a fortified shell, and in 1904 the owner sold the marble patio, which was shipped in crates to Paris and then to New York, where it is now in the Metropolitan Museum. The castle's empty courtyard remains in the village. Lavadero Tello is sixteen kilometres away, in the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park, where red-and-gold hills, almond groves and pale limestone peaks rise above the plains of Almería and Granada.
Read the complete Lavadero Tello IV write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lavadero Tello IV, about halfway. Next is back through Molinos II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Molinos II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Molinos II sits at 98 km, about halfway. Next is back through Lavadero Tello V.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lavadero Tello V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lavadero Tello V comes up 123 km in. Next is Cueva del Tio Labrador.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Tio Labrador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Tío Labrador closes the day.
Cueva del Tío Labrador → Lavadero Tello V is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lavadero Tello V → Molinos II is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Molinos II → Lavadero Tello IV is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lavadero Tello IV → back through Molinos II is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Molinos II → back through Lavadero Tello V is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lavadero Tello V → Cueva del Tio Labrador is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.