Shimano Gravel Alliance rider Ibai Fradejas once again goes in search of adventure. This time, he headed to the Sierra Salvada, a richly diverse plateau covering more than 100 square kilometres of prime gravel riding.

You’ll find Sierra Salvada in the northwest of Alava in the Basque Country. It’s a huge, wildly diverse plateau that sits between the Peña Angulo pass and the Orduña pass, spreading out to reveal more than 100 square kilometres of prime gravel tracks. It’s a place of legend, leg-burning climbs and long views that disappear into nothingness.

The Sierra Salvada is mainly covered with beech forests and green pastures, where human intervention has been limited. As a rider, you get the sense of being in a privileged landscape, constantly navigating your way around the terrain but almost always within sight of the huge limestone wall – a rock formation that’s home to more than 350 caves and stretches for 27 km.

Legend has it that this beautiful mountain range was once inhabited by a huge dragon that fed on sheep's milk and the flesh of the people it encountered in its path. Locals say that the dragon lived under the summit of Txarlazo, where you’ll now find a monument to the Virgen de la Antigua, the patron saint of Orduña (Bizkaia). 

Nearby, you can prop up your bike and explore a cave known as Koba haundi, which allegedly used to shelter Mari, the supreme deity of Basque mythology, who would cross the sky in a ball of flames and send shivers of fear through the population.

On this ride, we couldn’t help but notice that no kilometres were the same. The reason for the enormous biological diversity of this Sierra is due to the fact that two climates converge here:

• To the South, the Mediterranean climate unfurls 
• To the North, behind the cliff, lies the Atlantic Ocean.

In this Sierra – which just means a range of mountains in Spanish – you’ve also got the highest waterfall in the Iberian Peninsula: El Salto del Nervión, which comes crashing down 270 vertical metres from Monte Santiago (Berberana, Burgos) to the cirque of Délika (Amurrio, Álava). 

Riding here is worthwhile at any time of the year, but I’d suggest visiting by bike during the Spring snow melt season, or after a bout of heavy rain. This is when you’ll see the intensity of how the water from the newly born Nervión rushes into the void.

Sierra Salvada as a gravel riding destination unlocks the possibility of crossing valleys and peaks, where the elevation difference can hit four figures in a handful of kilometres.