Comares

Route

For the first 25km of the route, you follow the same route as Puerto del León loop. From the get go, you ride up the Puerto del León, take a right at Venta Galwey and start a little descent. At the next crossroads, where a couple of chill dogs are watching cyclists pass by, you go left towards Comares, the balcony of Axarquia.

 

The road goes up ever so slightly and towards the end of the road to Comares, it starts to gently go downhill. The main road doesn’t go into Comares itself, so if you want to visit the hilltop town, you need to go left and go up the steep ramps. Otherwise, soldier on and face a very steep descent with mediocre road quality, so be careful. The descent just suddenly stops with a T junction without much of warning, so keep your wits about you.

 

At the T junction, go right and follow the MA-3113 until you reach Trapiche. On the way, you ride through the valley and pass through villages like Benamargosa and Triana. Wherever you look, you see mango and avocado trees. This is a quiet bit of land, except for the harvesting season in September, when roads can get quite busy and the otherwise sleepy towns become alive.

 

At the end of this road, you reach the busy A-356 which is the main road that cuts through Axarquia from Torre del Mar all the way up to Casabermeja. Up until La Viñuela, there is a road, the A-7205, just next to the A-356 that follows the same route. This road is much more enjoyable and almost no traffic, and will take you to the outskirts of Veléz-Málaga.

 

From there, it’s the usual trip back to Málaga through the busy city of Vélez-Málaga, its adjacent Torre del Mar, and the the coastal road.

Fueling up

If you don’t feel like going for a coffee break, there’s a fuente at the junction with Comares. Otherwise, there’s no shortage of stops on route. In Benamargosa, for instance, it’s surprisingly busy at the town’s main crossroads and the cafeterias are quite alive with people chatting away over a coffee, or more likely, beer.

Tips

If you don’t feel like riding through Veléz-Málaga and riding 35 kilometers on the coastal road, you can follow the Bacalao route. When you’re close to Veléz-Málaga, you can take a right, go over the bridge towards Benamocarra, and at the roundabout, take the first exit and stay on this road to go to Iznate and Cajiz. This is a lovely route, but the extra elevation starts to add up and you’ll have almost 2000m of elevation in a 100km, which requires a good level of fitness.