La Manchuela Gravel

La Manchuela Gravel is a non-competitive ride built around discovery rather than the clock: GPS-guided loops out of Casas-Ibáñez, with the bullring as the meeting point, finish line and place where the day ends in a party. Its organisers want riders to get to know La Manchuela properly, from its open farmland plains to the river gorges that cut through it.

The routes follow the Júcar and Cabriel valleys, using the bed of the old Baeza to Utiel railway, passing the statue of Andrés Iniesta in Fuentealbilla and dropping into the Hoz del Júcar, where the river runs below villages such as Jorquera and Alcalá del Júcar and its old bridge. Shorter loops climb out over the wooden bridge at the Tranco del Lobo and return by a steep finale aptly called Quitapellejos, while the longer ones head into the wilder, emptier canyons of the Cabriel, an area the organisers note is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

The Entre Ríos ultra starts the evening before everyone else and links both rivers in a semi self-supported loop, with a base camp at a rural complex at El Herrumblar halfway round. It is the version for riders who want the night, the remoteness and the full journey across this corner of Albacete.