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 Sort it runs 253 km to Biescas; allow about 4 h 05 of riding. On the way it passes Ainsa and Jaca. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 36 km this is Pyrenees N260 Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Sort sits in the heart of the Catalan Pyrenees, in the Pallars Sobirà valley, where the Noguera Pallaresa river runs fast and green between steep mountains. It is a small town of about two thousand people, with a few streets of old stone houses, a tidy square and a surprising claim to fame: the lottery. A shop here has sold so many winning tickets over the years that Spaniards drive for hours to buy a ticket from it, and the name, which means luck in Catalan, adds to the legend.
Read the complete Sort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sort is where the day begins. Next is Ainsa.
Aínsa sits on a hilltop above the meeting of two Pyrenean rivers, the Cinca and the Ara, and the old village on top is one of those places where the medieval layout has simply been left to get on with itself. You enter through a gate into a great sloping square of rough cobbles surrounded by stone arcades, with a castle and a Romanesque church on the high side and views out over the valley. It was once the capital of the little Kingdom of Sobrarbe, whose rulers, according to legend, rallied here against the Moors, and the town still stages a spectacular festival recalling that story every few years.
Read the complete Ainsa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ainsa comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jaca.
Jaca is the old capital of the Pyrenees, a mountain town of thirteen thousand people at the foot of the Peña Oroel, with a cathedral, a fortress and a long history. In the eleventh century it was the first capital of the Kingdom of Aragon, and its cathedral, begun at that time, is one of the earliest Romanesque cathedrals in Spain, with a graceful apse and a cloister, and carved capitals that influenced churches along the pilgrim road.
Read the complete Jaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 217 km into the recorded legs you reach Jaca. Next is Biescas.
Biescas sits in the Aragonese Pyrenees at the lower end of the Tena valley, where the Gállego river cuts through the foothills and the mountains close in. It is a small mountain town with stone houses and slate roofs, set among meadows and pine woods, and with the high peaks of the Tendeñera range standing behind it. The sense is of a place at the doorstep of the high Pyrenees, a base for skiers in winter and walkers and riders in summer.
Read the complete Biescas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Biescas closes the day.
Sort → Ainsa is 143 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ainsa → Jaca is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jaca → Biescas is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.