Lomonosov used to be called Oranienbaum, and the name still describes it well: an orange tree, a German version of a Russian palace town. Prince Menshikov, Peter the Great's closest associate, began building it in the early eighteenth century, and later it passed to the imperial family. The town lies on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, a few kilometres west of Peterhof, and the palaces and parks of Oranienbaum are part of the UNESCO listing for the historic centre of Saint Petersburg. The Ratkov-Rozhnov estate called Dubki belongs to the same belt of country dachas and manors, and it takes its name from the little oaks that once grew there.
What I can tell you is the feel of the coast. The land is flat and wooded, with pine, birch and oak on sandy soil, and lanes that wander between small estates, allotment gardens and the occasional ruined manor house. In the war, the Oranienbaum area held out as a bridgehead surrounded by German troops, and the traces of that time are everywhere in memorials and trenches. The Chinese Palace of Catherine the Great, a delicate little building in the park, is the best thing to see.
The riding is mostly practical. Roads between Lomonosov, Petrodvorets and Bolshaya Izhora are busy at commuting hours and patchy in the countryside. Once off the main road you find shaded lanes where you can roll at a quiet pace. Spring brings mud and potholes, summer brings dust and sunshine, and autumn is the most pleasant. In midsummer the long evening light makes the sea glow.
With forty thousand people in Lomonosov and sixty thousand in Petrodvorets, fuel and food are never far. The smaller places have little. Whatever else you do, take time for the Chinese Palace and a walk by the shore at the end of the day, when the light turns low and gold over the water.