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 Tobed it runs 420 km to Tobed; allow about 6 h 29 of riding. The stops in between: Abside, Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros, Cañada de marco and El Cerrao. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Somewhere in the folds of the Sierra de Algairén, south-west of Zaragoza, a bell tower pokes up above a cluster of ochre roofs, and that is your Iglesia de Santa María. Half the villages of Aragon have a church of that name, and this one does the job the others do: it marks the middle of a small place where the shop, the bar and the plaza all orbit the same square of stone. The nearest neighbours on the map are Cosuenda, Almonacid de la Sierra and Alpartir, each a few hundred souls, each about nine kilometres off.
Read the complete Iglesia de Santa María write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Iglesia de Santa María is where the day begins. Next is Abside.
The apse in question belongs to the collegiate church of Santa María in Calatayud, and it is one of the reasons UNESCO lists the Mudéjar architecture of Aragon as a whole. Mudéjar means the building style of Muslim craftsmen living under Christian rule after the reconquest, and in Calatayud they did wonderful things with humble brick: geometric patterns, lozenges and interlacing arches laid out in relief, glazed tiles catching the sun. Next to the apse rises an octagonal brick tower that is the town's signature, and behind it a cloister, all three named in the listing.
Read the complete Abside write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abside comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros.
The prehistoric painters of eastern Spain had a thing for archers. Across hundreds of rock shelters from Catalonia to Andalusia, they painted small, dynamic human figures drawing bows, chasing deer and goats, sometimes fighting each other, and these scenes of the so-called Levantine style are part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Shelters with names like the Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros, the shelter of the black archers, are scattered through the limestone hills of the province of Teruel and its neighbours in Aragon, often in remote ravines and protected by grilles.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros. Next is Cañada de marco.
Calamocha has a reputation in Spain, and it is not for its nightlife. This town in the Jiloca valley of Teruel province is one of the coldest places in the country in winter, a high, open basin where the air pools at night and frost bites hard. In summer that same altitude makes it pleasant when the coast is sweltering. The Cañada de Marco is a site in the hills just outside town, and the name hints at the old drove roads, the cañadas, that once carried flocks of sheep across Aragon between summer and winter pastures.
Read the complete Cañada de marco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cañada de marco, about halfway. Next is El Cerrao.
The Río Martín is a modest river by Spanish standards, but it has carved one of the most interesting canyons in Aragon, and the Cultural Park that takes its name protects an extraordinary collection of rock art. El Cerrao is one of the shelters in that park, in the district of Montalbán in the province of Teruel, among cliffs of pale limestone above a dry valley. The paintings here belong to the Levantine tradition and are part of the group UNESCO inscribed in 1998.
Read the complete El Cerrao write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Cerrao sits at 170 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cañada de marco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cañada de marco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cañada de marco comes up about 306 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 331 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros. Next is back through Abside.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abside write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abside, late in the day. Next is Iglesia de Santa María.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Iglesia de Santa María write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 420 km.
Iglesia de Santa María → Abside is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abside → Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros → Cañada de marco is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cañada de marco → El Cerrao is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Cerrao → back through Cañada de marco is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cañada de marco → back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de los Arqueros Negros → back through Abside is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abside → Iglesia de Santa María is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.