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.
From Ontinyent it runs 462 km to Ontinyent; allow about 5 h of riding. The stops in between: Port de Confrides- Abric I, Cueva de la Clau, Barranc del Xorquet and Coves Santes de Dalt. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Few riders have heard of the Serra de Mariola, and that is a pity, because this little limestone range between Alcoi, Bocairent and Ontinyent is one of the most rewarding corners of inland Valencia. El Pantanet, near the village of Alfafara, is a small rock shelter with prehistoric paintings, one of the many sites in the UNESCO listing of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. As with most of its sisters, it is protected and access may be limited, but the hills around it reward the trip on their own.
Read the complete El Pantanet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Pantanet is where the day begins. Next is Port de Confrides- Abric I.
Inland from Benidorm, barely half an hour from the high-rise towers and the beach crowds, the mountains of Alicante rise steeply and the whole mood changes. The Port de Confrides is the saddle on the CV-70 between the Guadalest valley and the upland basin of Confrides and Benasau, with the long limestone wall of the Sierra de Aitana to the south. Aitana, at 1,558 metres, is the highest peak in the province, and on a clear winter morning you can see the sea glittering behind you as you climb.
Read the complete Port de Confrides- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Port de Confrides- Abric I comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de la Clau.
Behind Gandia, the orange groves climb into the folded limestone hills of La Safor, and among the tiny villages there, Palma de Gandía and Ador sit almost touching each other at the foot of the slopes. Cueva de la Clau is one of the many rock shelters in the Valencian hills that form part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, a scattered collection of hundreds of sites where prehistoric people painted hunters, animals, dancers and abstract signs on limestone overhangs.
Read the complete Cueva de la Clau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de la Clau. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barranc del Xorquet, about halfway. Next is Coves Santes de Dalt.
The Montgó is the great limestone hulk that rises between Dénia and Jávea on the Costa Blanca, a mountain that looks like a sleeping elephant from some angles and dominates every view along this stretch of coast. On its flanks, in shelters and small caves, are prehistoric paintings, and the Coves Santes de Dalt, the upper holy caves, are among the sites in the area recorded as part of the UNESCO Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings here are mostly schematic, simpler and more abstract than the hunting scenes found inland, and the shelters are protected, so viewing usually needs a guided visit.
Read the complete Coves Santes de Dalt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coves Santes de Dalt sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Barranc del Xorquet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Barranc del Xorquet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Barranc del Xorquet comes up about 281 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cueva de la Clau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de la Clau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 346 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cueva de la Clau. Next is back through Port de Confrides- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Port de Confrides- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Port de Confrides- Abric I, late in the day. Next is El Pantanet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Pantanet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 462 km.
El Pantanet → Port de Confrides- Abric I is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Port de Confrides- Abric I → Cueva de la Clau is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de la Clau → Barranc del Xorquet is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Barranc del Xorquet → Coves Santes de Dalt is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Coves Santes de Dalt → back through Barranc del Xorquet is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Barranc del Xorquet → back through Cueva de la Clau is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de la Clau → back through Port de Confrides- Abric I is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Port de Confrides- Abric I → El Pantanet is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.