CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
527 km from Quesada to Quesada, about 14 h 42 of riding. It goes by way of Úbeda, Cerro de la Caldera, La Alamedilla and back through Cerro de la Caldera. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The upper valley of the Guadiana Menor lies on the south-eastern side of the Sierra de Cazorla, in a country of olive terraces and open pine, and the name Manolo Vallejo, a person's name, sits there in the list of shelters like a marker for a family farm. The shelter is about five kilometres from Huesa, a town of some two and a half thousand, and seven from Hinojares, and it belongs, like its neighbours, to the Levantine rock art of the Mediterranean arc, recognised by UNESCO in 1998. Its siblings on the route, Poyo Medio Cimbarra and Cerro de la Caldera, are in the same district.
Read the complete Manolo Vallejo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Manolo Vallejo is where the day begins. Next is Úbeda.
In the middle of an ocean of olive trees, Úbeda rises on a ridge like a Renaissance city that took a wrong turn on its way to Florence. This town in the province of Jaén, along with its neighbour Baeza, was listed by UNESCO in 2003 for its sixteenth-century architecture, much of it the work of Andrés de Vandelvira, who built palaces, churches and chapels for wealthy noble families and royal officials. The Plaza Vázquez de Molina is the showpiece, a harmonious square lined with palaces and the extraordinary Sacra Capilla del Salvador, a funerary chapel built for Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Emperor Charles V.
Read the complete Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Úbeda comes up 63 km in. Next is Cerro de la Caldera.
The Sierra Morena marks the end of Andalusia, the hilly rampart that the old road from Madrid had to cross before dropping into the Guadalquivir lowlands. Cerro de la Caldera, a hill near Aldeaquemada in the north-east of Jaén province, sits in the heart of this frontier, in a quiet landscape of holm oaks, cork oaks, rockrose scrub and sandstone outcrops. Rock shelters in these hills hold schematic and Levantine paintings, and the area is part of the wider World Heritage listing of Iberian rock art.
Read the complete Cerro de la Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
125 km in you reach Cerro de la Caldera. Next is La Alamedilla.
Nobody lives close to this point, and that is its main fact. It lies in the eastern Sierra Morena, in the wild border country between Córdoba and Jaén, where holm oak and cork oak cover steep, empty hills and the nearest villages, Mestanza, Baños de la Encina and Cardeña, are all more than twenty-five kilometres away. The ride titles link it with the mercury mines of Almadén, whose Royal Forced Labour Gaol and miners' hospital are part of a UNESCO listing shared with Idrija in Slovenia, but Almadén lies far to the north-west, and the connection is a routing choice rather than a neighbourhood.
Read the complete La Alamedilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Alamedilla, about halfway. Next is back through Cerro de la Caldera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cerro de la Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cerro de la Caldera sits at 250 km, about halfway. Next is back through Úbeda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Úbeda comes up 313 km in. Next is Manolo Vallejo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Manolo Vallejo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Manolo Vallejo closes the day.
Manolo Vallejo → Úbeda is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Úbeda → Cerro de la Caldera is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cerro de la Caldera → La Alamedilla is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
La Alamedilla → back through Cerro de la Caldera is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cerro de la Caldera → back through Úbeda is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Úbeda → Manolo Vallejo is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.