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Morcuera mountain pass

Miraflores de la Sierra, Cuenca Alta del Manzanares, Madrid

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Morcuera mountain pass

Nature · Miraflores de la Sierra, Cuenca Alta del Manzanares, Madrid

The puerto de la Morcuera is a mountain pass at 1,776 metres in the sierra de la Morcuera, within the sierra de Guadarrama, through which the M-611 road covers the 21.66 kilometres that separate Miraflores de la Sierra from Rascafría; it is one of the toughest cycling passes in the Comunidad de Madrid. The climb from Miraflores, at 1,200 metres, gains about 600 metres of elevation over some 10 kilometres with an average gradient of 4 to 6%, and the descent towards Rascafría, at 1,150 metres, covers 13 kilometres with gradients of between 4.5 and 7%. From the top, the Madrid plain can be seen to the south and, in the other directions, peaks over 2,000 metres such as the Cabezas de Hierro and La Najarra, amid scrubland, pine woods and Pyrenean oak groves.

Photo: Axel Schlaefer (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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