CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 574 km round trip from Úbeda - roughly 10 h 40 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cueva de Apolinario, La Alamedilla and back through Cueva de Apolinario. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In the middle of an ocean of olive trees, Úbeda rises on a ridge like a Renaissance city that took a wrong turn on its way to Florence. This town in the province of Jaén, along with its neighbour Baeza, was listed by UNESCO in 2003 for its sixteenth-century architecture, much of it the work of Andrés de Vandelvira, who built palaces, churches and chapels for wealthy noble families and royal officials. The Plaza Vázquez de Molina is the showpiece, a harmonious square lined with palaces and the extraordinary Sacra Capilla del Salvador, a funerary chapel built for Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Emperor Charles V.
Read the complete Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Úbeda is where the day begins. Next is Cueva de Apolinario.
Sierra Morena is the long, dark range that separates the plains of La Mancha from the valley of the Guadalquivir, and the high-road gateway between them is the gorge of Despeñaperros, a few kilometres to the east of Aldeaquemada. The name means something like the pass where dogs are thrown off the cliff, which tells you how the Castilians felt about it. The Cueva de Apolinario is a rock shelter in these hills, and belongs to the painted shelters of the Sierra Morena, with figures that experts date back several thousand years. The area also holds the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin, as protected by UNESCO.
Read the complete Cueva de Apolinario write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de Apolinario comes up 75 km in. Next is La Alamedilla.
Nobody lives close to this point, and that is its main fact. It lies in the eastern Sierra Morena, in the wild border country between Córdoba and Jaén, where holm oak and cork oak cover steep, empty hills and the nearest villages, Mestanza, Baños de la Encina and Cardeña, are all more than twenty-five kilometres away. The ride titles link it with the mercury mines of Almadén, whose Royal Forced Labour Gaol and miners' hospital are part of a UNESCO listing shared with Idrija in Slovenia, but Almadén lies far to the north-west, and the connection is a routing choice rather than a neighbourhood.
Read the complete La Alamedilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
150 km in you reach La Alamedilla. Next is back through Cueva de Apolinario.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de Apolinario write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de Apolinario, late in the day. Next is Úbeda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Úbeda. That is the ride.
Úbeda → Cueva de Apolinario is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cueva de Apolinario → La Alamedilla is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
La Alamedilla → back through Cueva de Apolinario is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cueva de Apolinario → Úbeda is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.