The best cycling routes around San Emiliano

The pass is now paved and can be driven on by car.

During the mining era, this pass served as a discreet link between mines on either side, and minimal traces of old cart and mule traffic remain, though they don't coincide with the current road. From above, the wind is almost constant, and the view towards the Saliencia lakes has that air of a "natural viewpoint" before the term even existed. It's perfect to mark on Komoot as a key point on your route due to its spaciousness, its somewhat hidden history, and its character as a natural border.

Upon reaching the summit, you don't arrive at a village or a tourist center, but rather at a kind of natural balcony overlooking the Lena mountain passes, which gives a strange feeling, as if you've stepped onto an empty stage. And on clear days, the wind is louder among the mountain passes than any car, because traffic is minimal.

For decades, La Cubilla was practically a ghost town: a road built to connect mining valleys, used more by livestock farmers and scattered trucks than by travelers. This lack of traffic left a remarkably clean route, free of curves, absurd straights, and modern widenings: pure mountain design from another era. That's why many cyclists say it "looks more like an Alpine pass than a Cantabrian one," with those giant limestone walls silently accompanying you.

The La Cubilla mountain pass is located at an altitude of 1,683 meters, on the border between Asturias and León. Its rugged terrain and the beauty of its surroundings have earned it the title of stage finisher of the Vuelta a España, making it one of the most iconic climbs among cyclists.

San Emiliano is the capital of the Babia region in León, a small town surrounded by mountains and meadows where you can breathe the essence of rural León life. Its stone houses, church, and natural surroundings make it an ideal starting point for exploring Babia's protected landscapes.

San Emiliano is a quiet cattle-raising village in the Babia de Yuso at the foot of the imposing mass of the Peña Ubiña massif. The town has all the services and is the starting point we have chosen to begin the climb towards Puerto de la Ventana. In autumn the days are short and we start early, the first rays of the sun barely lighting up the crest of Peña Ubiña. In Torrebarrio we continue along a dirt cattle track to finish warming up our legs and begin the climb towards the border of Asturias along the path of the old Ventana or Santa Fe coal mine. The track has a good surface and the climb is quiet until the Cuspasante sheepfold, passing near the Roguera cabins and beginning the mine slope. The mining operation was inland, the buildings are in ruins, there are remains of the exploitation and enormous slopes of the waste dumps, one of them is at the end of the climb, at the foot of the Peñón de Ventana, and is a panoramic viewpoint of the valley of San Emiliano and a large part of Babia.

It is no longer a track, it already has the first layer of asphalt, the works will finish soon. The last 2 km very very hard, an average slope of 12%, the landscape spectacular.