The mines climb

The Mines climb

13.29 km

845m height gain

Av grade 6%

Starting just outside the small village of  Torviscon you first drop 1km into the river (to lose as much height as possible) The start of the climb starts off as a fairly constant gradient which allows for a good rhythm heading towards the pretty hillside village of Almegijar,

It is situated at over 800 metres above sea level, on the southern slopes of the Sierra Morena, a spur of Mulhacen, the highest mountain in Spain. Before the Spanish civil war in 1935, the church was burned by anarchists and during the war it was just behind the republican front lines; the remains of trenches can still be seen up the mountain. These trenches represents the furthest advance of the fascists into Las Alpujarras after they took Granada.

The people of the village still largely work on the land, often using mules. There are many olive groves (and an olive oil processing factory), almonds, oranges and lemons, along with vegetable gardens

but no time for views if you are going for a pb. Its time to start paying if you went off to hard as the hairpins keep coming passing the old mines (now only used for aggregates) eventually giving way to a small rest over a false summit. Make the most of the small rest as the last 2km has a couple of very steep bends and keeps a couple of surprises until the top.