June/July, 2026
KmM = Kilometer Marker
Ponferrada is a town of about 63,000 people in the North West part of Spain, west of León. It’s one of the towns on the Camino de Santiago, so you may see pilgrims hiking with their backpacks. The town itself seems quite compact for the number of people, perhaps because may of the residences are multi-story apartment buildings. I liked Ponferrada and its downtown area.
Llano de las Ovejas
A stunning climb that starts right out of Ponferrada. It was used on Stage 17 of the 2025 Vuelta a España, but because of the need for lots of space at the finish, the stage didn’t do the whole climb, finishing at El Morredero, an old ski area that closed in 2008. If you watch the video of the race, you’ll see that the area is blackened from a fire. Despite that, I loved the look of the climb, and finally had the opportunity to ride it. The whole ride is about 70 km with 5,700 feet of climbing.
The landscape is amazing. Once past the initial rural area, it becomes open and bleak, with rarely a tree to be seen. I loved it. The road quality varies dramatically, varying between okay, super smooth, and in need of repaving. Some of the steepest sections are earlier on, before El Morredero, but some of the best climbing comes after El Morredero, especially the section between El Morredero and Los Portillimos. After Los Portillimos the gradient eases dramatically, rolling gently until you reach the end of the climbing. I went a bit past the high point until it became obvious that the climbing was over.
Here is what Cycle Fiesta says about the climb, and here is a beautiful gradient display of the climb. And here’s a video clip of the last part of Stage 17.
And here’s the climb on Ride with GPS.
Puerto de Ancares
Cycle Fiesta says this about the climb: “This is the most spectacular side of one of the most enjoyable climbs in Spain – if not in the whole of Europe.” I confess that I don’t agree; the climb had its moments but I’ve done a lot better climbs in Spain, and definitely in Europe.
Okay, so this ride isn’t exactly out of Ponferrada. I drove to A Proba de Navia, a drive of about 1h 20m. There’s plenty of parking there. I parked at 42.96463025364805, -7.004644317991793.From here it’s about a 3.5 km ride along the LU-722 to the LU-P-3502 on the right, where the climb actually starts.
The climb started in the trees but a bit after KmM 3 you start to leave the trees and get some lovely views off to the right of the rolling hills. Around KmM 8 everything opens up and you have views in all directions. After about 15 km from the start, you now see the valley deep below you and you have to descend for about 5 km (which you realize you will have to climb back up later).
At about 21 km you leave the LU-P-3502 and turn very sharp right onto the LU-P-3508. Follow this up past Robledo then Murias. After Murias you enter a deep, tree-filled canyon and soon you reach the border of Provincia Lugo with Provincia León, and suddenly the road quality gets much worse. I hated this next part, steep uphill on a crappy road and I thought about turning back.
Fortunately the road is bad for only about 5 km and then you reach Balouta, where things open up and the views improve. At Balouta the road quality improves dramatically, and from here to the top the road quality varies between great, super sweet, and adequate.
Interestingly, I found the first hill, Alto de Folgueiras de Aigas, had the best scenery, and the descent from it on the way back was the best part of the ride. From the top of this climb there’s a lot of downhill before you start the big climb up to Puerto de Ancares. Which means there’s a lot of climbing on the way back (2,200 feet) and some of it is steep.
The whole ride is about 79 km with 8,800 feet of climbing. The ride up to Puerto de Ancares was abough 6580 feet of climbing, which means that you have to climb about 2,200 feet on the way back down. And those climbs on the way down are plenty steep!
I confess that I didn’t enjoy the climb after Murias that much and was wondering why anyone thought this was a great climb, but coming back down, and climbing up to and descending Alto de Folgueiras de Aigas gave me better memories to take home 😀.
Here is what Cycle Fiesta says about the climb, and here is a beautiful gradient display of the climb (from Robledo to the top).
And here’s the ride on Ride with GPS.
