Arcos de la Frontera

The beautiful town of Arcos de La Frontera is the starting point of this surprisingly lovely route. The town is worth a visit by itself, so make sure to take some time before or after your ride to see this spectacular village. As opposed to most of Andalucía, you can improve your route without fearing a slight detour will take 50 km away over steep killer mountains.

 

While there are no high mountains here, the rolling hills of the Parque Natural Los Alcornocales offer enough elevation, and without realizing you’ll be easily going towards 1700 m of elevation gain. Don’t worry though, the gradients are gentle and you’ll have a great day out.

Route

There aren’t that many roads in the area, and even only a handful in the huge Los Alcornocales park. The logical thing to do, anywhere you start in the area, is to head to the refuge of the national park.

 

The first point of interest is the lake of Guadalcacín. Cross the dam and enjoy the views of this cute little artificial lake. By then, you’ll have had 15 km to warm up. After the embalse of Guadalcacín, it’s constant up and down with short bursts. Climbs - except the main climb in the park, are never long and usually not steep either.

 

The roads are in excellent state, and best of all, little traffic on these country roads. The road surface is a little worse on the main climb, but otherwise it’s an absolute joy to ride here, if there’s too much wind, that is.

 

The turning point is yet another white-washed village, Alcalá de los Gazules, and soon after you’ll be in the natural park and the fun can begin. As you can see from the climb profile, nothing to be afraid of. But you do will have to climb about 400m up.

A quick descent through the park later and you’ll almost be at the home stretch, but not before you’ve had to go from the outer ring to the smallest cog in the inner ring a few times. Quite annoying, which for me at least, was the hardest part of the entire route.

Fueling up

At the edges of the natural park, there are enough towns where you can fill up your bidons. In the park, there are no facilities whatsoever, so bring enough gear and tools in case you run into any calamities.