Why this ride
244 km from Jalance to Jalance, about 7 h 53 of riding. On the way it passes Abric de los Gineses, Abrigo de Rosser, Abric de las Sabinas and Cueva del Cerro.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Peñon de los machos and Cueva del Cerro
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 244 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 53
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Peñon de los machos
Cofrentes is a village at the confluence of two rivers, the Júcar and the Cabriel, in the interior of Valencia province, and it has a curious mix of attractions. Above it stands a castle on a crag. Nearby rises the Cerro de Agrás, the only recently active volcano in the Valencian Community, a dark cone of basalt in a landscape of limestone. And just outside the village, the cooling towers of the Cofrentes nuclear power station send plumes of steam into the sky. The Peñón de los Machos, a rocky outcrop with painted shelters, lies in the hills between Cofrentes, Jalance and Jarafuel.
Read the complete Peñon de los machos write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Peñon de los machos is where the day begins. Next is Abric de los Gineses.
2. Abric de los Gineses
Bicorp has about 650 inhabitants and a church, a main street, a bar or two and a long view across a valley of pine and carob trees, and that is the kind of place that makes an inland Valencia ride special. This is the so-called España vaciada, the emptied Spain, where villages have lost most of their young people over the last sixty years, and where the land has been returning to scrub and forest. The roads are quiet because the people are gone, and the effect on a rider is a gift: bend after bend with no traffic, the smell of rosemary and warm pine, and a sky as large as you will see in Europe.
Read the complete Abric de los Gineses write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de los Gineses comes up 18 km in. Next is Abrigo de Rosser.
3. Abrigo de Rosser
Near Bicorp, in the dry, folded hills of inland Valencia, one of the most famous images in prehistoric art was found in 1920: a figure clinging to ropes on a cliff, reaching into a hole surrounded by bees, a honey gatherer painted thousands of years ago in the Cuevas de la Araña. The Abrigo de Rosser lies in the same rugged area of the Canal de Navarrés and the Júcar gorges, one of many shelters with Levantine paintings in this region, and together they form part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. Bicorp has a small interpretation centre, and guided visits to some shelters can be arranged.
Read the complete Abrigo de Rosser write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
37 km in you reach Abrigo de Rosser. Next is Abric de las Sabinas.
4. Abric de las Sabinas
Bicorp is the village to head for, and it is worth the ride for the name alone. It is a small place in the Canal de Navarrés, the inland Valencian country where the hills fold into one another and nobody has ever made a postcard of them. This is also the country of the famous Cuevas de la Araña, the Spider Cave near Bicorp, where a painted figure on a rock face is shown gathering honey from a crevice with ropes or vines. Of all the Levantine paintings, that scene is probably the one most often reproduced, and it reminds you that the people who painted these walls were gatherers and hunters with a keen eye for small domestic tasks.
Read the complete Abric de las Sabinas write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de las Sabinas, about halfway. Next is Cueva del Cerro.
5. Cueva del Cerro
Inland Valencia is a world away from the beaches on the coast. Behind the orange groves and the motorway the land rises into dry, folded mountains cut by deep gorges, where villages of a few hundred people cling to the hillsides and the pines smell of resin in the heat. Millares and Dos Aguas lie in this country, near the Júcar and Cabriel rivers, and the Cueva del Cerro is a rock shelter in the limestone, one of the many places in eastern Spain where prehistoric people left paintings on the walls.
Read the complete Cueva del Cerro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cueva del Cerro sits at 74 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abric de las Sabinas.
6. back through Abric de las Sabinas
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de las Sabinas write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Abric de las Sabinas comes up 92 km in. Next is back through Abrigo de Rosser.
7. back through Abrigo de Rosser
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de Rosser write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
110 km in you reach back through Abrigo de Rosser. Next is back through Abric de los Gineses.
8. back through Abric de los Gineses
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de los Gineses write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Abric de los Gineses, late in the day. Next is Peñon de los machos.
9. Peñon de los machos
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peñon de los machos write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 244 km.
Leg by leg
Peñon de los machos to Abric de los Gineses
Peñon de los machos → Abric de los Gineses is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de los Gineses to Abrigo de Rosser
Abric de los Gineses → Abrigo de Rosser is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de Rosser to Abric de las Sabinas
Abrigo de Rosser → Abric de las Sabinas is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de las Sabinas to Cueva del Cerro
Abric de las Sabinas → Cueva del Cerro is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Cerro to back through Abric de las Sabinas
Cueva del Cerro → back through Abric de las Sabinas is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric de las Sabinas to back through Abrigo de Rosser
back through Abric de las Sabinas → back through Abrigo de Rosser is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de Rosser to back through Abric de los Gineses
back through Abrigo de Rosser → back through Abric de los Gineses is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric de los Gineses to Peñon de los machos
back through Abric de los Gineses → Peñon de los machos is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.