Alto de Velefique (from Velefique)
Climb · Granada
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Alto de Velefique (from Velefique) is a 27.6 km cycling climb averaging 4.8% (+1316 m), rising from 474 m to 1788 m in Granada.
27.6 km · +1316 m · 4.8% avg · ~12.9% max · 474 → 1788 m · 21 hairpins
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
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Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 12.9% (km 16.1–16.6).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 492 m | 1.9% |
| 2 | 514 m | 2.2% |
| 3 | 536 m | 2.2% |
| 4 | 559 m | 2.5% |
| 5 | 583 m | 2.3% |
| 6 | 611 m | 2.6% |
| 7 | 641 m | 3.1% |
| 8 | 663 m | 2.2% |
| 9 | 683 m | 2.1% |
| 10 | 703 m | 2.0% |
| 11 | 730 m | 2.6% |
| 12 | 752 m | 2.4% |
| 13 | 778 m | 2.7% |
| 14 | 827 m | 4.6% |
| 15 | 874 m | 4.6% |
| 16 | 944 m | 7.5% |
| 17 | 1048 m | 10.2% |
| 18 | 1137 m | 9.1% |
| 19 | 1244 m | 10.2% |
| 20 | 1321 m | 8.1% |
| 21 | 1388 m | 6.2% |
| 22 | 1443 m | 6.2% |
| 23 | 1503 m | 5.9% |
| 24 | 1585 m | 8.2% |
| 25 | 1641 m | 5.6% |
| 26 | 1697 m | 5.5% |
| 27 | 1767 m | 6.8% |
What it’s like to ride
The road leaves the desert floor near Tabernas and spends about fifteen kilometres drifting upward at 2-3% through bare scrubland, with the Tabernas desert opening out behind you, before the climbing proper starts at the white houses of Velefique. From the village it is roughly 13 km averaging over 7%, and the hardest work comes first: the opening kilometre touches 11% and the first few sit around 10% before the gradient eases. Above the houses there are no trees at all, and the road stacks around twenty hairpins up an open hillside, so every bend hands you a view of the ribbon you have just ridden folded below you. The tarmac is smooth and the traffic is thin, which is a large part of why the climb is worth the drive to reach it. Velefique village has a bar and a restaurant and then there is nothing for the rest of the ascent; the Mirador del Pedregal comes about 500 m from the finish, and the top is a signpost at roughly 1,820 m, reached over a last kilometre that is little more than false flat.
History
The Vuelta a España brought the high roads of the Sierra de los Filabres into its route in 2004 and repeated the same Almería stage in 2006, and Velefique has been used regularly since. On 11 September 2009 it hosted a summit finish on stage 12 out of Almería, won by Ryder Hesjedal, the first Canadian to win a Vuelta stage. The race climbed it again on stage 11 in 2017, this time as a pass on the way across the Filabres. In 2021 the organisers rated it Especial, the Vuelta's equivalent of hors catégorie, for the stage 9 finish from Puerto Lumbreras on 22 August, where Damiano Caruso attacked out of the breakaway 71 km from the line and soloed to the top.
Worth stopping near the climb
More climbs in Granada
Common questions
- How long and steep is Alto de Velefique (from Velefique)?
- Alto de Velefique (from Velefique) is a 27.6 km cycling climb averaging 4.8% (+1316 m), rising from 474 m to 1788 m in Granada.
- Where is Alto de Velefique (from Velefique) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 12.9%, between km 16.1 and km 16.6 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Alto de Velefique (from Velefique) have?
- Alto de Velefique (from Velefique) has 21 hairpin bends, counted from the road's map geometry (a hairpin here means at least 150 degrees of turning completed within 150 metres of road). Painted corner numbers on some climbs count gentler bends too, so the two figures can differ.