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 422 km round trip from María - roughly 10 h 34 in the saddle. The stops in between: Abrigo de las Cañadas II, Solana del molinico and back through Abrigo de las Cañadas II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Lázar
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lázar is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de las Cañadas II.
2. Abrigo de las Cañadas II
Nerpio is about as remote as mainland Spain gets. The village sits in the far southwest corner of Albacete province, in the Sierra de Segura, where the mountains of Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha meet, and the rock shelters scattered around it make up one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric art in the region. The Abrigo de las Cañadas II belongs to that group, an overhang in the hills between Nerpio and the high plateaus toward Huéscar and Yeste.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de las Cañadas II comes up about 112 km into the recorded legs. Next is Solana del molinico.
3. Solana del molinico
Socovos is the sort of village you only find by getting a little lost: a cluster of white houses below a ruined castle in the far southeast of Albacete province, where the plains of La Mancha give way to the tangled ridges of the Sierra de Segura. Solana del Molinico, close by, is one of the rock-art shelters in this corner of Spain that belong to the UNESCO listing for Levantine rock art. The word solana means a sun-facing slope, and many of these painted overhangs face south, catching the warmth on winter days just as they must have done when hunters and gatherers sheltered here.