You don't have to climb the Angliru every day.

There are three-hour days when you want to put in a real effort and head back home. And there are days when you want to know how your form is without waiting an hour and a half to find out. For both cases, in Asturias, there is La Mozqueta.

The numbers

From Santa Marina, in Quirós, it is 6.6 kilometers with 560 meters of elevation gain, an average gradient of 8.4% and a maximum of 14%. The summit is at 1,010 meters.

On our difficulty scale, it scores 47, the second lowest of the ten. But that is due to length, not gradient: its 8.4% average is higher than that of La Farrapona, La Cubilla, and Covadonga.

The profile, kilometer by kilometer

All the toughness is in the first five kilometers, with averages of nine, ten, eight, nine, and eleven. And then it softens up all at once: seven and six.

That has an important practical consequence. If you climb it flat out, the classic mistake is to pace yourself thinking there is a lot left. There isn't. Here you have to start strong, hold on until the fifth kilometer, and use the last two to finish it off, not to recover.

How long it will take you

Those twenty or twenty-five minutes flat out are, coincidentally, the exact duration of the threshold test used by half the world. If you train with a power meter, this climb is your laboratory.

What’s not in the data

You climb through Bermiego, a village in Quirós home to the Tejo de Bermiego, a thousand-year-old yew tree declared a Natural Monument. You ride right past it. It’s worth the two minutes it takes to stop.

There is no traffic. It's a village road, and the villages of Quirós have few inhabitants.

It is a La Vuelta mountain pass, used in 2018 and 2020, always on the way to the Angliru. It has never been a protagonist, and that is part of its charm.

How to fit it in

Two ways.

As an appetizer. La Mozqueta, descent to Quirós, La Cobertoria and full climb to Gamoniteiru. These are the Colossi of Quirós: seventy-eight kilometers, 2,600 meters of elevation gain, and two of the three hardest climbs in Spain in one ride.

Or as a main course. If you have three hours and want to test yourself, come, warm up through the valley, climb it flat out and return. It is the best test in Asturias and needs no accompaniment.

The other nine. La Mozqueta is one of the ten legendary climbs of Asturias that we have collected in a seventeen-page guide: kilometer-by-kilometer profiles, times by level, and six routes that link them together. It’s free.

Download the Asturias climb guide

Frequently asked questions

How long is the Alto de La Mozqueta?

6.6 kilometers from Santa Marina, in Quirós, with 560 meters of elevation gain, an average gradient of 8.4% and a maximum of 14%. The summit is at 1,010 meters.

Is it good for a power test?

Yes, it is probably the best in Asturias for that. At a high pace, you climb it in twenty to twenty-five minutes, which is the standard duration for a threshold test, and it has almost no traffic.

Where is the hard part?

In the first five kilometers, with averages of 9, 10, 8, 9, and 11%. The last two ease off to 7 and 6%, so it is best not to over-conserve thinking there is more climb to come.

What is the Tejo de Bermiego?

A thousand-year-old yew tree declared a Natural Monument, in the village of Bermiego, next to the climb route. It is one of the oldest trees in Asturias.