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 Villafranca del Cid it runs 394 km to Villafranca del Cid; allow about 9 h 10 of riding. It goes by way of Cova de Gargán, Castell de Villafamés, Abric del mas dels Ous and back through Castell de Villafamés. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The inland hills of Castellón are some of the emptiest in eastern Spain. Behind the orange groves and resorts of the coast the land rises into the Maestrat, a high, stony country of plateaus, gorges and stone-walled fields, where villages of a few hundred people cluster around fortified churches and the horizon is crowned by the bulk of Penyagolosa, nearly 1,800 metres high. Villafranca del Cid, Culla and Benassal lie in this landscape, and the Roca del Migdia, the Noon Rock, is a shelter in a limestone face that was painted in prehistory.
Read the complete La Roca del migdia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Roca del migdia is where the day begins. Next is Cova de Gargán.
High in the interior of Castellón, where the coastal orange groves are long forgotten and the land climbs toward the Penyagolosa massif, the shelter known as Cova de Gargán sits in a country of limestone ledges, holm oak and dry-stone terraces. Vistabella del Maestrazgo is the nearest village, a handful of kilometres away on its high plateau, with Villahermosa del Río down in its valley to the other side and Lucena del Cid a little further south. It is quiet up here in a way that the coast never is.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova de Gargán comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castell de Villafamés.
Villafamés announces itself from a long way off: a village of white and ochre houses stacked up a hill of reddish rock, with the remains of a castle crowning the top. It stands a little inland from the coast of Castellón, roughly between Borriol, Cabanes and the beach town of Benicàssim, close enough to the sea that you can smell salt on a westerly breeze turning, yet already in that rumpled hill country that leads up into the Maestrat.
Read the complete Castell de Villafamés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach Castell de Villafamés. Next is Abric del mas dels Ous.
Xert is the kind of village you pass through on the way to somewhere else and then wonder why you did not stop. It lies in the Baix Maestrat in northern Castellón, below a ridge of bare limestone, with the old village climbing the slope and a newer part down by the road. The shelter called the Abric del Mas dels Ous, the shelter of the farmhouse of the eggs, is out in the dry hills nearby, between Xert, Canet lo Roig and Rosell.
Read the complete Abric del mas dels Ous write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del mas dels Ous, about halfway. Next is back through Castell de Villafamés.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castell de Villafamés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castell de Villafamés sits at 171 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cova de Gargán.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova de Gargán comes up about 300 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Roca del migdia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Roca del migdia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Roca del migdia closes the day.
La Roca del migdia → Cova de Gargán is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → Castell de Villafamés is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castell de Villafamés → Abric del mas dels Ous is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Abric del mas dels Ous → back through Castell de Villafamés is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Castell de Villafamés → back through Cova de Gargán is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova de Gargán → La Roca del migdia is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.