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.
493 km from Alquézar to Alquézar, about 8 h 28 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña, Forau del Cocho, Abrigo de Los Gitanos and Cueva de los moros.. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Quizáns I
Where the Vero canyon opens out above Alquézar, the land is partitioned into dry terraces that once held wheat and olives, and one of those fields or slopes carried the name Quizáns. The shelter listed as Quizáns I is the first of its group, a little over three kilometres from the village and twenty from Barbastro. It belongs to the family of painted shelters of the Aragonese Pre-Pyrenees, which are part of the Levantine art that UNESCO listed in 1998, and in this area it often means lines of tiny archers and animals in a dull red pigment.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Quizáns I is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña.
2. Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña
Just north of Huesca, where the flat cereal land of the Hoya suddenly rears up into the first limestone walls of the Pre-Pyrenees, lies the little village of Nueno and, above it, the rock shelter named after Santa Eulalia de la Peña. This is the southern edge of the Sierra de Guara country, a landscape of gorges, conglomerate cliffs and scrub where griffon vultures ride the thermals and the light comes hard off pale stone.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Forau del Cocho.
3. Forau del Cocho
South of Huesca the land opens out. The Pyrenees are behind you, a snowy line on a clear day, and ahead stretches the gently rolling cereal country that eventually turns into the dry steppes of Los Monegros. Forau del Cocho lies in this transitional landscape, between Torres de Barbués, Almuniente and the outskirts of Huesca itself, a place where the only relief is the occasional low ridge or gully cut into soft rock.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach Forau del Cocho. Next is Abrigo de Los Gitanos.
4. Abrigo de Los Gitanos
The road north-west out of Huesca toward Pamplona runs along the foot of a dramatic wall of rock. To the north are the Pre-Pyrenean sierras, and studded along them are some of Aragón's most striking sights: the Castle of Loarre, a superbly preserved Romanesque fortress on a spur, and the Mallos de Riglos, huge red conglomerate towers rising straight out of the hillside. The rock shelter known as the Abrigo de los Gitanos lies in this country, between Ayerbe, Loarre and Luesia.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de Los Gitanos, about halfway. Next is Cueva de los moros., 48 km on.
5. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 493 km.
Leg by leg
Quizáns I to Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña
Quizáns I → Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña to Forau del Cocho
Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña → Forau del Cocho is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Forau del Cocho to Abrigo de Los Gitanos
Forau del Cocho → Abrigo de Los Gitanos is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de Los Gitanos to Cueva de los moros.
Abrigo de Los Gitanos → Cueva de los moros. is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de los moros. to back through Abrigo de Los Gitanos
Cueva de los moros. → back through Abrigo de Los Gitanos is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de Los Gitanos to back through Forau del Cocho
back through Abrigo de Los Gitanos → back through Forau del Cocho is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Forau del Cocho to back through Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña
back through Forau del Cocho → back through Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña to Quizáns I
back through Abrigo de Santa Eulaliade la Peña → Quizáns I is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.