From Cortes de la Frontera to Mountain of the Wizard.

Not every ride needs to be a loop to blow your mind. This one starts with a descent, ends at an epic dam, and throws in just enough climbing to earn your snack.

Tap the pic, let Strava do the guiding.

We start in Cortes de la Frontera, a town that sounds like it guards something epic. And to be fair, it kind of does. Tucked between two natural parks and surrounded by cork oak forests - this is where our little 45 km adventure begins. Now here comes the plot twist: for once, the ride doesn’t immediately try to break your legs. Surprise! Your warm-up is a 5 km descent.

That’s right — downhill. No climbing, no swearing, just smooth coasting.

But as we all know, what goes down must go up — and now it’s time to climb toward Benaoján. The road throws in two proper climbs just to remind you who’s boss, but other than that, it’s a surprisingly pleasant ascent. The kind that lets you settle into a rhythm, breathe a little deeper, and pretend you’re in a slow-motion cycling movie with a dramatic soundtrack.

The surrounding mountains do a great job of keeping your brain occupied — constantly shifting, looming, opening up into valleys and suddenly closing in like they’ve got secrets. It’s beautiful, a bit weird, and just distracting enough to make the effort feel... almost option.

Next stop: Montejaque — a white village clinging to the hillside. Its name comes from the Arabic Monte-Xaquez, which may or may not mean “Mountain of the Wizard.” And honestly, it fits. The vibe here is low-key magical — steep little streets, stubborn stone houses, and a feeling that something ancient is humming under your wheels. The climb into town gives your legs something to talk about, but it’s worth it. Montejaque is not just a pretty pit stop — it’s the gateway to one of Andalusia’s strangest engineering experiments. But more on that in a minute…

From Montejaque, the road peels away from the village and dives into a landscape that honestly feels illegal to be this good. The ride to the dam is one of those rare stretches that takes your breath away — and not just from the climbing.

Rolling hills give way to jagged cliffs, the air gets quieter, and suddenly it’s just you, your bike, and a ribbon of tarmac cutting through raw, cinematic silence. You round a corner and — boom — the canyon opens up beneath you like someone dropped a glacier-sized axe in the Earth. It's dramatic. It's deserted. And it’s the perfect prelude to what’s waiting at the end of the road: a dam with no water, no logic, and absolutely no right to look this cool.

Presa de los Caballeros (also known as Presa de Montejaque) is one of those places where you show up, stare for a full minute, and then say, “Wait... what?” Built in the early 20th century, this massive stone dam was meant to tame the underground river flowing through the Hundidero-Gato cave system. Spoiler: it didn’t work. The water just vanished into the porous karst like a magician’s trick.

Highly recommend rolling down to the little viewpoint below the dam — it’s a short descent, totally rideable, and 100% worth it. From down there, you get the full scale of the place: towering stone walls, fractured rock faces, and that eerie stillness that makes you whisper even though no one’s around.

The way back? You already know it — today, this ride isn’t a loop. Unless, of course, you decide to go full mix-and-match mode and stitch together a custom return using one of the other loops I,ve shared from this area. It’s like building your own tapas plate of climbs!

Because who needs a loop when you’ve got views like this?

From Cortes de la Frontera to “Please Tell Me This is Real”

Distance: 45 km

Elev Gain: 1240 m

Time: 2.30 h

Type: Road with bonus walk or gravel inside

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/routes/3364899043297793846