Pico Veleta (from Granada)
Climb · Granada
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Pico Veleta (from Granada) is a 34.7 km cycling climb averaging 7.3% (+2588 m), rising from 729 m to 3281 m in Granada.
34.7 km · +2588 m · 7.3% avg · ~19.9% max · 729 → 3281 m · 41 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: 19.7% (km 15.5–16).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 770 m | 4.3% |
| 2 | 809 m | 3.9% |
| 3 | 808 m | -0.1% |
| 4 | 830 m | 2.1% |
| 5 | 931 m | 10.5% |
| 6 | 1040 m | 10.6% |
| 7 | 1110 m | 8.1% |
| 8 | 1216 m | 9.4% |
| 9 | 1294 m | 7.6% |
| 10 | 1373 m | 8.8% |
| 11 | 1425 m | 4.8% |
| 12 | 1450 m | 2.6% |
| 13 | 1540 m | 8.6% |
| 14 | 1645 m | 11.4% |
| 15 | 1744 m | 8.9% |
| 16 | 1903 m | 16.4% |
| 17 | 2031 m | 14.8% |
| 18 | 2110 m | 7.4% |
| 19 | 2165 m | 5.0% |
| 20 | 2226 m | 7.1% |
| 21 | 2303 m | 7.2% |
| 22 | 2364 m | 7.1% |
| 23 | 2433 m | 7.0% |
| 24 | 2495 m | 5.5% |
| 25 | 2562 m | 6.5% |
| 26 | 2636 m | 7.1% |
| 27 | 2695 m | 6.8% |
| 28 | 2768 m | 7.4% |
| 29 | 2846 m | 6.8% |
| 30 | 2916 m | 7.5% |
| 31 | 2990 m | 7.3% |
| 32 | 3076 m | 8.2% |
| 33 | 3134 m | 8.4% |
| 34 | 3222 m | 7.0% |
What it’s like to ride
Granada's eastern edge sits at about 750 m and the road does not stop climbing for another thirty-odd kilometres. The A-395 works up in long open curves, with cafés and the El Dornajo visitor centre for bottles on the lower half, then loses its trees above the Pradollano ski station and turns pale and bare, the 30 m dish of the Pico Veleta observatory standing out on the mountainside at 2,850 m. Hoya de la Mora, around 2,500 m, is the last food and water, a car park with kiosks, and the barrier there has kept unauthorised motor traffic off the road since 1999, so what follows is empty. Above it the surface goes gritty and broken, the gradient settles near 7–8% and holds, and the thin air changes your breathing long before the top. Asphalt gives out around 3,300 m and the final metres to the 3,398 m summit are loose stone, with a small hut beside the obelisk and ibex on the slopes.
History
The road was pushed up the mountain for tourism by the Duke of San Pedro de Galatino, with work starting in 1920 and the engineer Juan José Santa Cruz taking charge of public works in Granada in 1931; the section to Pico Veleta was officially opened on 15 September 1935, Santa Cruz arriving at the top in a car driven by his daughter Teresa, and he was executed at the start of the Civil War on 2 August 1936. Cars and buses ran on what was then called the highest road in Europe until 1999, when a barrier at Hoya de la Mora closed the upper section to unauthorised traffic to protect the national park. The Vuelta a España has finished on the upper part of this road at Hoya de la Mora, 2,510 m, taken by Tony Rominger in 1994, Félix Cárdenas in 2003 and Miguel Ángel López in 2017, with earlier finishes lower down at Pradollano in 1979, 1981 and 2011. The Subida Cicloturista al Veleta has run since 1994, 39 km from Cenes de la Vega with 2,627 m of climbing to a finish at 3,300 m by the Laguna chairlift.
Worth stopping near the climb
More climbs in Granada
Common questions
- How long and steep is Pico Veleta (from Granada)?
- Pico Veleta (from Granada) is a 34.7 km cycling climb averaging 7.3% (+2588 m), rising from 729 m to 3281 m in Granada.
- Where is Pico Veleta (from Granada) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 19.7%, between km 15.5 and km 16 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Pico Veleta (from Granada) have?
- Pico Veleta (from Granada) has 41 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.