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.
121 km from Mendoza to Tunuyán, about 2 h 06 of riding. The stops in between: Maipu, Lujan de Cuyo and Uco Valley. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 17 km this is Paso de los Libertadores, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Mendoza is a city of trees. Walk or ride any of its wide avenues and you will pass under rows of old plane trees, fed by narrow irrigation channels called acequias, a system that the indigenous Huarpe people started long before the Spanish arrived. The reason is the desert: Mendoza gets very little rain, and every green leaf here exists because snowmelt from the Andes is carried down in channels and spread across the plain. It is a city of nearly nine hundred thousand people in the greater area, set against a wall of mountains that, on a clear winter morning, includes the white shoulder of Aconcagua far to the west.
Read the complete Mendoza write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mendoza is where the day begins. Next is Maipu.
Maipú is the oldest of Mendoza's wine districts, a flat, tree-lined expanse of vineyards and olive groves just south-east of the city, and it is where many visitors have their first taste of Argentine Malbec. The land lies on the plain beside the Mendoza River, irrigated by a network of channels, called acequias, that were first dug by the indigenous Huarpe people and later expanded by the Spanish. Without them, this would be desert, as the rainfall is tiny, but with them, the plain is green with vines, poplars and fruit trees, and rows of tall poplars stand like windbreaks along the lanes.
Read the complete Maipú write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maipu comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lujan de Cuyo.
Luján de Cuyo is the home of Argentine Malbec, and its vineyards climb in terraces up the foothills of the Andes, a little south-west of Mendoza. The district is higher than Maipú, with many of its vineyards at between 900 and 1,100 metres, and the altitude, with its strong sunshine and cool nights, gives the grapes concentrated flavour and a firm structure. Names like Perdriel, Agrelo and Vistalba are known to wine drinkers across the world, and the stony soils of the old riverbed are said to be ideal.
Read the complete Luján de Cuyo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Lujan de Cuyo. Next is Uco Valley.
Two hours south of the city of Mendoza, the Uco Valley opens beneath the Andes like a wide, clean page. It is a high valley, with its vineyards at between 900 and 1,500 metres, among the highest wine-growing land in the world, and the snow-covered range stands right behind them, with the volcano Tupungato, at 6,570 metres, towering above the rest. On a clear morning, the view of vines in neat rows with that wall of white behind them is one of the most striking in South America.
Read the complete Uco Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Uco Valley, late in the day. Next is Tunuyan.
Tunuyán lies in the Uco Valley, about eighty kilometres south of the city of Mendoza, where the vineyards run in long green lines toward the wall of the Andes. The mountains here are enormous. The snowy mass of the Tupungato volcano, at more than six thousand metres, fills the western horizon, and on a clear morning the peaks glow pink above the vines. The valley sits at about a thousand metres above sea level, and the altitude gives cool nights, strong sunlight and wines of unusual freshness, particularly Malbec and Chardonnay.
Read the complete Near Tunuyán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Tunuyan. That is the ride.
Mendoza → Maipu is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maipu → Lujan de Cuyo is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lujan de Cuyo → Uco Valley is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Uco Valley → Tunuyan is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.