The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 407 km round trip from Alquézar - roughly 6 h 46 in the saddle. The stops in between: Pyrénées - Mont Perdu, Cueva de los moros. and back through Pyrénées - Mont Perdu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
Pyrenees N260 Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 71 km this is Pyrenees N260 Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
71 km
Named road
Pyrenees N260 Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Malforá I
The Sierra de Guara is where the Pyrenean foothills turn to stone. Limestone ridges, deep canyons and rocky crags form a country that is famous among canyoners, and the Vero river runs through the middle in a gorge of pale, polished rock. Alquézar, a village of only about 300 people, perches on a rocky spur over the river, with a collegiate church and a castle on top, and its narrow lanes are among the most photographed in Aragon. It was once a Moorish stronghold, and in the eleventh century it fell to the Christian king Sancho Ramírez, an event that marks the early Reconquista in this region.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Malforá I is where the day begins. Next is Pyrénées - Mont Perdu.
2. Pyrénées - Mont Perdu
Monte Perdido, the lost mountain, at 3,355 metres, is the highest limestone massif in Europe and the centrepiece of a cross-border World Heritage site shared by Spain and France. On the Spanish side, it gives its name to the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, with deep canyons radiating out from the summit; on the French side, it looks down on the great cirques of Gavarnie and Troumouse.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pyrénées - Mont Perdu comes up 79 km in. Next is Cueva de los moros., 80 km on.
3. Cueva de los moros.
There is a Cueva de los Moros in half the valleys of Spain. Every unexplained cave, ruin or rock shelter used to be credited to the Moors, and this one, in the hills of the western Aragonese Pyrenees between the valleys of Hecho and Ansó, is a rock shelter with ancient traces. You should approach it as an excuse to spend time in two of the most beautiful and least spoiled valleys of the Pyrenees, rather than as a monument.