Almería is an ideal province to practice cycling, either road or mountain. Its unique orography mixture mountain and coast in a few kilometers, it also has the only desert in Europe, that of taverns, which favors that unique routes of Mountain Bike can be made.
If you like to shoot for rugged landscapes of volcanic appearance with stone and gravel, it is undoubtedly Almería is an area that you must visit by bicycle. In addition, it is the Spanish province with more hours of sun and heat in Spain, with an average of 3,000 hours per year. So if you like to roll with a sun a getaway to Almeria must be among your plans.
As for the routes, there are two differentiated areas: the coast and the interior. The first is more affordable both physical and technical to the west, while the Cabo de Gata area, to the east, is much more broken. For its part, the interior is mountainous, with spectacular landscapes. There is also the desert of taverns, very close to the capital of the province. A scenario that has nothing to envy to the American west or the Moab desert landscapes.
Tabernas Desert Route
We start with a moderate level route, although with sections that demand good expertise with bicycle handling. A circular layout with origin and arrival in Almeria and passed through the famous Tabernas desert, the only area considered as a desert throughout Europe. It is a spectacular lunar -looking landscape that can be crossed in a couple of hours. You can also visit some of the villages of the West that served as decoration of some of the
Westerns more grossing in history, such as
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly either
Until his time came.
We recommend avoiding this route in summer, since temperatures can be very little recommended and even dangerous to ride a bicycle, sometimes reaching 50º C. It is important to go well pertrechados of water and food and roll well protected from the sun. Although both the city of Almería and the town of Tabernas are close to the desert, the rugged landscape and the arid climate demand a special preparation for mountain cycling.
The route that we propose is ascending in its first half, to kilometer 36 of the route, and then start a favorable descent and land to return to Almeria. The positive slope is about 800 meters.
Route through Cabo de Gata
Cabo de Gata gives name to a population and a natural park protected by its coastal and marine wealth. His spectacular beaches, cliffs, wetlands and Salinas make it a very curious place to see by bicycle. We propose an affordable circular route although with hard sections that begins in the town of Cabo de Gata and takes southeast direction, through the most important beaches of the enclave: Almadraba, Fabriquilla or the Genoese.
Between these last two, two hard repeches are uploaded, between the Punta Baja and the black tip. The first is considered the end located further southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. After bordering the beach of the Genoese the route goes into the interior looking for the town of the Pozo de los Frailes, already in the municipality of Níjar.
This last section is already done taking the Al-3108 road, which will take to the greenhouse field of El Barranquete and Ruescas, and then return back to Cabo de Gata.
Sierra de Filabres - Velefique
Velefique and all its surroundings of the
Sierra de los Filabres It is a cycling paradise of southern Spain. Both in the top of Velefique and High Hall, hard stages of the Tour of Spain have developed in recent years, on decisive occasions.
With regard to Moutain Bike there are several routes scattered throughout the area in the beginning in the beautiful town of Velefique, a typical Andalusian town of narrow streets and houses totally painted in white. From there we propose a circular route that borders the port, whose top it is at 1,890 m of altitude. The first part of the route, the first 12 km, are uploaded, is stony and with bushes, so it will have to be dosing forces.
Once crowning a technical but funny descent opens, very stirred, which will take back to the town of Velefique. The landscape is dominated by spectacular ravines and leafy pine forests, which suppose an oasis within the general landscape of dry and rugged mountain. Important to have good technique to face the final descent with ease and security.
-
Difficulty: Moderate
-
Modality: XC / Trail
-
Distance: 28.4 kilometers
-
Elimming: 1,100 meters
-
Route type: Circular
-
Start end: Velefique
- Route track on Wikiloc
