Benešov is a busy little county town about forty-five minutes south-east of Prague, and for most riders its name is shorthand for one thing: Konopiště. The chateau sits in a wooded park just west of the centre, a Gothic castle remodelled in the late nineteenth century for Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne. He was an obsessive hunter, and the corridors are lined with an almost unsettling quantity of antlers and trophies. The rose garden, the deer park and the lake below the castle are calmer company.
The town itself is practical rather than pretty, with a railway junction, supermarkets and a modest square. Its practical side is what matters at the end of a ride: fuel stations on the edges of town, places to eat, and an easy run back to Prague on the D1 motorway if you want to be home quickly. Remember that Czech motorways require an electronic vignette, motorcycles included.
The country around Benešov is the Posázaví, the land of the Sázava river, and it is made for unhurried riding. Minor roads swing through mixed forest, past fishponds fringed with reeds, and up over low ridges where the view opens across a rumpled quilt of fields. Corners are frequent but rarely tight, and surfaces range from fresh to tired. Weekend traffic is light away from the main roads, though cyclists like these lanes too.
If you are finishing here, the old road towards Prague through Poříčí nad Sázavou and along the river makes a gentler alternative to the motorway, with the water glinting through the trees and campsites and riverside pubs along the banks. It is a pleasant way to let the day unwind.