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 74 km round trip from María - roughly 2 h 03 in the saddle. On the way it passes Izquierda E. de Santonje, Molinos II and back through Izquierda E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The Vélez comarca in northern Almería sits high and dry, a land of almond trees, steppe and pale limestone ranges that feels more like the Castilian interior than the beach resorts of the south coast. Lázar lies in this country, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, within the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park. The area is known for some of the most important prehistoric art in Andalusia, and the best-known symbol is the Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc above its head, taken from a painting in the cave of Los Letreros near Vélez-Blanco and adopted as the emblem of the whole province.
Read the complete Lázar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lázar is where the day begins. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 17 km on.
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izquierda E. de Santonje comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Molinos II. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 17 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, late in the day. Next is Lázar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lázar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Lázar. That is the ride.
Lázar → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Molinos II is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Molinos II → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → Lázar is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.