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.
A 233 km round trip from Mazaleón - roughly 4 h 01 in the saddle. The stops in between: Valmayor IV, Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume, Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés and back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The lower Matarraña, in the far east of Aragón, is a drier, emptier country than the green upper valley. Here, the river flows through low hills of sandstone and limestone, with olive groves, almond trees and cereal fields, and the villages stand on hilltops, built of golden stone. Mazaleón is one of them, a small village above the river, with Maella and Calaceite nearby. Els Secans, a name meaning the dry lands, is a shelter with prehistoric paintings in the hills just outside the village.
Read the complete Els Secans write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Els Secans is where the day begins. Next is Valmayor IV.
Where the Ebro, the Segre and the Cinca meet in eastern Aragon, a vast reservoir stretches for dozens of kilometres between bare, ochre hills. The locals call it the Mar de Aragón, the Sea of Aragon, and it was created in the 1960s when the Mequinenza dam flooded the valley. The old town of Mequinenza went under the water too, and its people were moved to a new town built above, a story told in moving detail in the local museums and in the novels of Jesús Moncada, who grew up there.
Read the complete Valmayor IV write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Valmayor IV comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume.
Mequinenza had to move. In the 1960s and 1970s, two dams built on the Ebro created a huge reservoir known as the Mar de Aragón, and the old town at the meeting of the Ebro and the Segre was abandoned and largely demolished, its people resettled in a new town above. The story is told in the town's museums and in the novels of Jesús Moncada, who grew up in the old Mequinenza. In a ravine nearby, the Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume holds prehistoric paintings, part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume. Next is Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés.
South of Lleida the irrigated orchards give way abruptly to dry, open steppe, and the little village of Alfés sits on the edge of that change. The Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés are rock paintings in a small sandstone shelter near the village, schematic designs in red pigment, mostly abstract lines, dots and simplified figures, that belong to the later, more symbolic phase of prehistoric art in eastern Spain, and they are included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean Basin rock art. They are modest to look at, but there is something powerful about seeing marks left by people thousands of years ago in such an open, wind-swept place.
Read the complete Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés, about halfway. Next is back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume sits at 133 km, about halfway. Next is back through Valmayor IV.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Valmayor IV write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Valmayor IV comes up about 193 km into the recorded legs. Next is Els Secans.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Els Secans write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Els Secans closes the day.
Els Secans → Valmayor IV is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Valmayor IV → Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés → back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → back through Valmayor IV is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Valmayor IV → Els Secans is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.