The tourist brand, promoted by the Ejea de los Caballeros City Council, includes seven mountain bike route proposals and two road bike stage routes that allow you to discover the area while respecting the environment.
It's here, ready to seduce cyclists: Bardena Territorio Total , the new destination brand to showcase the charms of the Bardena from the Aragonese side.
Bardena Territorio Total offers seven cycling routes for exploring the Bardena Aragonesa by mountain bike or gravel bike. The proposal also includes two multi-stage routes for discovering the Cinco Villas region by road bike.
A boost to Bardena Negra
The Municipal Development Agency of Ejea de los Caballeros ( SOFEJEA ) has been working for some time on the best way to make visible and publicize the possibilities and attractions of the Bardena Aragonesa , also known as the Bardena Negra.
In 2018, a project was launched to promote 'Bardena Territorio Total' as a destination brand linked to cycle tourism that would offer alternatives for cycling through the Bardena from the Aragonese side.
This project is part of the Strategic Development Plan for the Towns of Ejea which, promoted by the city council and coordinated by SOFEJEA, pursues the implementation of new development axes for, for example, colonization towns. Among these axes, sustainable nature tourism was identified, taking advantage of the resources of La Bardena Aragonesa and its area of influence.
Now, Bardena Territorio Total is a reality with a logo, brand image, its own website and an interesting offer of cycling routes near Zaragoza.
Seven mountain or gravel bike routes
During this time, SOFEJEA, together with the Municipal Tourism Office and the specialized consultancy Bikefriendly , has designed a proposal of seven mountain bike routes that start from the surroundings of Ejea de los Caballeros and run along cycle tracks that allow you to travel through the most characteristic points of the Bardena Negra and look out in some sections at the Bardena Blanca or Navarrese.
The seven mountain bike routes are color-coded according to their difficulty level. Four are classified as blue because they have less than 600 meters of elevation gain. Two are classified as red and range between 600 and 900 meters of elevation gain. The last one, the ' Bardena Negra Challenge ', is considered black because it consists of 65 kilometers and just over 1.250 meters of accumulated elevation gain.
All these routes run along tracks in the natural environment of the Bardena that do not require great technical skills on the bike but are physically demanding due to the characteristic ups and downs of the terrain.
With these bike routes through the Bardena , visitors can ride through this characteristic landscape between the border of Aragon and Navarre and discover representative places of the Bardena Negra such as Punta La Negra , among others.
The seven routes are circular and begin and end in towns in the Zaragoza municipality of Ejea de los Caballeros , such as El Sabinar, Pinsoro or Valareña.
On the Bardena Territorio Total website, cyclists will be able to find all the information about the territory, its places and the seven routes, including downloading the tracks in .gpx format and access to their tracking from mobile applications.
Romanesque Route of the Five Villas
In addition, the Bardena Territorio Total website offers all the necessary information about an attractive option for road cyclists: the Romanesque Route of the Five Villages.
This is a proposed road cycling route of approximately 300 kilometers with over 4.500 meters of accumulated elevation gain. The route, which they suggest dividing into five stages, starts in Ejea de los Caballeros and passes through the most important Romanesque art sites in the villages of the Cinco Villas region , including Sos del Rey Católico, Uncastillo, Sádaba, El Frago, Luna, Valpalmas, Erla, Biota, and Luesia.
They also propose a slightly shorter version of the Romanesque Route of the Five Villages. In this case, it is recommended to do it in three stages, for which all the necessary information is also available on the website.
An alternative way to discover some of the most beautiful towns, castles and churches in the province of Zaragoza by cycling along quiet secondary roads with little traffic.
