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 385 km round trip from Malmö - roughly 5 h 31 in the saddle. On the way it passes Ridestien in Grønholt Vang, Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang, Borgring and Roskilde Cathedral. It crosses from Sweden into Denmark - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 26 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Malmo faces Copenhagen across the water, and for most of its history it was the second city of the Danish kingdom. Skane, the southern province of Sweden, belonged to Denmark until 1658, and the old centre of Malmo, with its big square, its brick Gothic church of St Peter and its castle, still has a faintly Danish look. In the twentieth century, the city built ships and cars, and when the shipyards closed in the 1980s it fell into a slump. The comeback has been spectacular. Old docks became housing and parkland, and the Turning Torso, a twisting skyscraper by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, finished in 2005, now stands as the city's emblem.
Read the complete Malmo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Malmo is where the day begins. Next is Ridestien in Grønholt Vang.
A ridestien is a bridle path, and in Denmark they are taken seriously. Grønholt Vang, in the woodland and open country of north Zealand, has a network of them, and the one marked here runs through trees and along the edge of open ground a few kilometres from Fredensborg and Hillerød. The paths are meant for riders on horseback, so a motorcycle has no business on them, but they are a clue to the character of the area: an old landscape of forest and estate, now shared by walkers, cyclists and horse riders.
Read the complete Ridestien in Grønholt Vang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ridestien in Grønholt Vang comes up about 91 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang.
North Zealand is the part of Denmark where kings went to relax. The coast road runs up the Øresund from Copenhagen to Helsingør, past beach villas and harbours, and inland, behind the first ridge, lies a quieter country of beech woods, lakes and rolling fields around Fredensborg and Lake Esrum. Grønholtvangen is a stretch of open land and woodland north of Grønholt Vang, a name that suggests an old common, in a landscape that was shaped by royal hunting and by the great beech forest of Gribskov, one of the largest in Denmark. The ride belongs to Kronborg Castle, the Renaissance fortress at Helsingør that Shakespeare turned into Elsinore, the home of Hamlet.
Read the complete Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang. Next is Borgring.
In 2014, archaeologists using laser scanning of the landscape noticed a faint circle in a field near Køge, on the Danish island of Zealand, about forty kilometres south-west of Copenhagen. Excavations confirmed what they had hoped: it was a Viking ring fortress, one of a small group of perfectly circular fortresses built in Denmark in the late tenth century, probably under King Harald Bluetooth. It was named Borgring, and it was the first new ring fortress to be found in Denmark in over sixty years.
Read the complete Borgring write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Borgring, about halfway. Next is Roskilde Cathedral.
Roskilde Cathedral is where Denmark keeps its kings. Since the fifteenth century, almost every Danish monarch has been buried here, and the chapels and crypts hold around forty kings and queens, from medieval stone tombs to ornate baroque sarcophagi and modern designs. The cathedral itself, begun in the late twelfth century under Bishop Absalon, the warrior-churchman who also founded Copenhagen, was one of the first big brick Gothic churches in Scandinavia, and it set the style for church building across the region. UNESCO listed it in 1995. Inside, look for the clock with the figure of St George slaying the dragon, which strikes the hour, and the pillar where royal visitors have marked their height.
Read the complete Roskilde Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roskilde Cathedral sits at 179 km, about halfway. Next is back through Borgring.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Borgring write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Borgring comes up about 217 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 293 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang. Next is back through Ridestien in Grønholt Vang.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ridestien in Grønholt Vang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ridestien in Grønholt Vang, late in the day. Next is Malmo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Malmo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 385 km.
Malmo → Ridestien in Grønholt Vang is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang → Borgring is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Borgring → Roskilde Cathedral is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roskilde Cathedral → back through Borgring is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Borgring → back through Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Ridestien in Grønholt Vang → Malmo is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.