The best traffic-free bike rides around Pozalmuro

After the tough climb, we have beautiful views of both valleys

Small and pretty town, area with lots of interesting mountain bike trails

Magaña Castle is a medieval fortress located on a hill overlooking the town of the same name, in the province of Soria, Tierras Altas region, community of Castilla y León. It is believed to have been built during two stages throughout the 15th century. The inner enclosure would be built in the first stage, and the outer barrier in a second. Due to its architectural characteristics, it belongs to the typology of stately castle of the Valladolid school, very common in the north of Castile in the second half of the 15th century.

Montenegro de Ágreda is a town belonging to the municipality of Matalebreras, in the province of Soria, region of Moncayo, in the community of Castilla y León. It stands out for the church of Nuestra Señora de la Blanca, a proto-Gothic fortified church from the 13th century that took advantage of the structure of an old Berber tower in its construction.

Ólvega is a municipality in Soria in the community of Castilla y León. Its origin dates back to the beginning of the 5th century, although even older archaeological remains have been found from two nearby Celtiberian forts. It is popularly known as "Niña del Moncayo", for being at the foot of this mountain, and also as "Second Numancia", for the popular revolt of 1474 to avoid rendering vassalage to the Count of Medinaceli.

Magaña is one of those towns that surprises you greatly the first time you go. It is located on a promontory above the Alhama River valley and at the highest part stands the Nava del Marqués castle, built in the 15th century from a 10th century Berber tower. From the castle wall you can see a beautiful panoramic view of the town, in the foreground the church of San Martín de Tours stands out, built in the 16th century on a Romanesque hermitage.

In Montenegro de Ágreda, the ancient fortified church of Nuestra Señora de la Blanca remains standing, built at the end of the 12th century, attached to a Berber defensive tower, from the 10th century. Another jewel of the Romanesque style that spread throughout the medieval border lands .

In Pozalmuro we find the bar closed, we have little to do and a storm is also threatening, we fill the kettles with water and begin the ascent of the Sierra del Madero, the mountain pass of the day to jump the Iberian System and cross the Duero basin to the great valley of the Ebro. The climb is a cycle path with quite a slope, it has some studs to avoid the destruction of runoff and maintain the quality of the surface but they require extra effort on each step. The hard slope ends at an extraordinary viewpoint with signs of the landscape, the views are magnificent. Moncayo (2,314 m) is an imposing mass, the roof of the Soria mountains and the highest peak of the Iberian System. We follow the milestones of the natural path down a descent with a couple of delicate curves for the gravel wheels on the loose stone and then a well-conditioned and fun path in a holm oak forest of great environmental quality. The sky turns into hell and we arrive at the town of Muro when the raindrops turn into hail balls, luckily the bar is open here. In Muro is the site of the Roman city of Augustóbriga and in the bar room they have posters highlighting the notoriety of the place. The Roman town was decisive in the Roman conquest and control of the towns that lived in the mountain slopes of Moncayo. The bad weather is persistent and we decided to finish the stage in Ágreda, an interesting town of three cultures on the slopes of Moncayo. At Hostal Doña Juana they are welcoming and kind to cyclists, even when they arrive soaked and their bikes are muddy. Before dinner there is time to see more towers, palaces, convents, stately homes and stroll through the Moorish quarter, passing through medieval gates with original battlements or in the shape of a horseshoe arch, such as the Puerta del Agua, from the 8th century, the oldest construction of the architectural heritage of Ágreda.