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.
195 km from Villafranca del Cid to Villafranca del Cid, about 5 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Barranco de Gibert II, Cova de Gargán and back through Barranco de Gibert II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Racó means corner in Valencian, and this really is a corner: a fold in the limestone hills between Benassal, Culla and Vilafranca, in the interior of Castellón where the coast's crowds feel a continent away. The rock shelter here is one of the many small sites of Levantine prehistoric painting that together make up a UNESCO World Heritage listing, and like most of them it is modest, fenced and best seen with a local guide. What lingers is less the painting than the idea of hunters choosing this exact overhang, with water close by and a view down the valley, and leaving their mark on it.
Read the complete Racó de Nando write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Racó de Nando is where the day begins. Next is Barranco de Gibert II.
Up on the roof of the Maestrazgo, where Teruel and Castellón meet, the land rises above fourteen hundred metres into a bleak, beautiful plateau of pasture, pine and limestone. Mosqueruela, on the Aragonese side, is one of the highest villages in the area, and Vilafranca, on the Valencian side, sits in a valley below. The Barranco de Gibert cuts into the hills between them, close also to La Iglesuela del Cid, and its second shelter holds prehistoric paintings.
Read the complete Barranco de Gibert II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barranco de Gibert II comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova de Gargán.
High in the interior of Castellón, where the coastal orange groves are long forgotten and the land climbs toward the Penyagolosa massif, the shelter known as Cova de Gargán sits in a country of limestone ledges, holm oak and dry-stone terraces. Vistabella del Maestrazgo is the nearest village, a handful of kilometres away on its high plateau, with Villahermosa del Río down in its valley to the other side and Lucena del Cid a little further south. It is quiet up here in a way that the coast never is.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 98 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova de Gargán. Next is back through Barranco de Gibert II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Barranco de Gibert II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Barranco de Gibert II, late in the day. Next is Racó de Nando.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Racó de Nando write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Racó de Nando. That is the ride.
Racó de Nando → Barranco de Gibert II is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Barranco de Gibert II → Cova de Gargán is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → back through Barranco de Gibert II is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Barranco de Gibert II → Racó de Nando is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.