CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 205 km, Yerevan to Alaverdi - roughly 3 h 32 in the saddle. It goes by way of Dilijan, Vanadzor and Haghpat. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 14 km this is Armenia Debed Canyon Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Yerevan is a pink city. The stone that built it is volcanic tuff, in shades from rose to apricot to grey, and when the evening light hits the apartment blocks and the opera house it glows as if lit from inside. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, founded as the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC, and yet most of what you see was laid out in the Soviet years by the architect Alexander Tamanian, in a ring plan around a great central square. A little over a million people live here, about a third of the country, and the capital feels like the engine room of Armenia.
Read the complete Yerevan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yerevan is where the day begins. Next is Dilijan.
Dilijan is the town the Armenians call their Little Switzerland, which is a generous description of what is really a small spa town buried in the forest. It sits in the Tavush province, in a green valley of the Lesser Caucasus, at roughly 1,400 metres, with beech and oak woods climbing the slopes all round. It is wetter and cooler than the rest of the country, which is mostly dry plateau, and the sudden greenery after the bare hills of the Armenian highlands is a shock. The air carries a smell of wet leaves and wood smoke.
Read the complete Dilijan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dilijan comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vanadzor.
Vanadzor is Armenia's third city, and it makes no attempt to charm. It sits in a bowl of the Lesser Caucasus, at the confluence of the Pambak and Vanadzor rivers, with mountains on all sides and the old Soviet industrial landscape of chemical plants, apartment blocks and wide avenues in the middle. The city was known as Kirovakan in Soviet times, after a Bolshevik leader, and it took on its present name in 1992. In December 1988, the great Spitak earthquake devastated the region, and Vanadzor suffered serious damage, some of which can still be seen.
Read the complete Vanadzor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 133 km into the recorded legs you reach Vanadzor. Next is Haghpat.
Haghpat is a monastery perched on a ledge above the Debed Canyon, and it is one of those places that makes the long ride worth it. The complex, together with its sister monastery at Sanahin, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is a masterpiece of medieval Armenian architecture. It was founded in 976, in the reign of the Bagratid kings, by Queen Khosrovanuysh, and expanded over the next three centuries, with a main church, a bell tower, a refectory and a library, all built of dark grey stone with delicate carved decoration.
Read the complete Haghpat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Haghpat, late in the day. Next is Alaverdi.
Alaverdi is squeezed into the bottom of the Debed canyon, in the north of Armenia, so tightly that the houses seem to be stacked on top of each other up both sides. The river runs below, the railway and the road run beside it, and above rise steep green slopes with cliffs and monasteries. The town grew in the Soviet period around a copper smelter, which worked for decades, and the industry has left a distinctive atmosphere: apartment blocks, rusting pipes, and a feeling of a place that has seen better days but has not given up.
Read the complete Alaverdi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Alaverdi. That is the ride.
Yerevan → Dilijan is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Dilijan → Vanadzor is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vanadzor → Haghpat is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Haghpat → Alaverdi is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.