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 177 km round trip from Velez Rubio - roughly 4 h 26 in the saddle. It goes by way of Izquierda E. de Santonje, Abrigo de los Gavilanes 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 line favours views over speed.
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.
Molinos II is where the day begins. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 20 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 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Gavilanes.
Gavilanes means sparrowhawks, and the name fits a shelter high on a limestone face above the dry country where Murcia meets Almería. The Abrigo de los Gavilanes lies in the hills west of Lorca, in an area scattered with painted shelters such as the Collado de la Cruz and Los Grajos, the jackdaws, and it is part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The figures are small, red and schematic, painted by communities who farmed and herded here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Gavilanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de los Gavilanes. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 20 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 Molinos II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Molinos II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Molinos II. That is the ride.
Molinos II → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Abrigo de los Gavilanes is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → Molinos II is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.