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.
From Velez Rubio it runs 342 km to Velez Rubio; allow about 5 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Cueva de la Plata, Las Cazuelas and back through Cueva de la Plata. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 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 Cueva de la Plata.
Aledo is a tiny village on a rocky spur in the hills of Murcia, a place that punches well above its weight in history. In the eleventh century, it was a fortress on the frontier between Christian Castile and the Muslim taifa kingdoms, and the siege of Aledo in 1088 was a major episode in the struggle for the peninsula. A tower still stands above the village. The Cueva de la Plata, the silver cave, lies in the hills nearby, between Aledo, Totana and Alhama de Murcia.
Read the complete Cueva de la Plata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de la Plata comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Las Cazuelas.
Moratalla is the kind of hill town that looks as though it was poured down a slope: white houses tumbling below a castle tower, narrow lanes too steep for comfort, church bells echoing off the hills. Ten kilometres out, in the rugged country of north-west Murcia, the shelter of Las Cazuelas holds prehistoric paintings, part of the region's contribution to the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings are fragile and protected, and access is usually by guided visit, arranged in Moratalla or through the regional authorities.
Read the complete Las Cazuelas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach Las Cazuelas. Next is back through Cueva de la Plata.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de la Plata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de la Plata, 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 → Cueva de la Plata is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de la Plata → Las Cazuelas is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Las Cazuelas → back through Cueva de la Plata is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de la Plata → Molinos II is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.