CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The Picos pack alpine scale into a short distance from the Atlantic. The Desfiladero de los Beyos threads a narrow gorge for kilometres, and the climb to the Covadonga lakes is steep, narrow and sometimes access-restricted in high season. Check that restriction before riding up.
The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 19 km. 1054 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall. A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not.
This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else. 17 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it.
1054 m come off over 19 km at around 5.9%. The road gives back what the climb took, faster than it took it — brakes early, eyes far ahead. A descent this long asks more of concentration than of pace.
This is where Spain's story of reconquest is told, at least the way it is told in Asturias. A few kilometres up the road at Covadonga, the local lord Pelayo is said to have beaten a Muslim force around 722, an event that became the founding legend of the Kingdom of Asturias, and Cangas de Onís was that kingdom's first capital. So a small town of about six thousand people carries rather a lot of history, and it shows in the Roman Bridge, which is actually medieval, with its high single arch over the Sella and a cross hanging beneath it.
Read the complete Cangas de Onís write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cangas de Onís is where the day begins. Next is Lagos de Covadonga, climbing 1054 m.
The Lagos de Covadonga are two glacial lakes, Enol and Ercina, set in a high pasture of the Picos de Europa, and the road that climbs to them is one of the great climbs of Spain. The AS-262 rises from the sanctuary of Covadonga through beech forest and open meadow, switching back along a narrow track to reach the lakes at about 1,100 metres. Cyclists know it as a legendary finish of the Vuelta a España, and on a summer day you will share the road with a procession of pedallers in lycra and cowbells.
Read the complete Lagos de Covadonga write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 1134 m here. The road climbs 1054 m on the way up to it, hard. Reckon on about 7 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Desfiladero de los Beyos, mostly downhill.
The Desfiladero de los Beyos is the gorge the Sella river cut through the limestone heart of the Picos de Europa, and the road that follows it is one of the great short rides in northern Spain. The walls rise sheer on both sides, grey and cream and streaked with orange, so close in places that the sky narrows to a slit, while the river runs green and fast far below. Oseja de Sajambre, a mountain village of a few hundred people, lies near the upper end, and Posada de Valdeon, another small settlement, is farther south in a neighbouring valley. Fuel is in Cangas de Onis, to the north, or Riano to the south.
Read the complete Desfiladero de los Beyos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
46 km in you reach Desfiladero de los Beyos. You lose 734 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 2 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Riaño, climbing 700 m.
Riaño is a town that was moved. In the 1980s the Spanish government built a large dam on the Esla river, and when the reservoir filled in 1987, it drowned the old town, along with eight other villages in the valley, in the face of years of protest from the people who lived there. The residents were resettled in a new town built on the shore, with modern streets and a church rebuilt on higher ground, and the old stone houses disappeared beneath the water. In dry years, the water drops and the shapes of walls reappear. About five hundred people live in the new town today.
Read the complete Riaño write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 68 km in. The road climbs 700 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Puerto de San Glorio, climbing 509 m.
San Glorio is a high pass on the border between Cantabria and Castile and León, a quiet, grassy saddle at 1,609 metres, and it gives access to the Liébana, the sheltered valley on the southern side of the Picos de Europa. The road climbs from the plateau of Palencia through bare, rolling country, with wide skies and few trees, then drops abruptly into green mountain valleys, a change so sudden it feels like crossing into another country. The sign at the top may be modest, but the view down into the Liébana is not.
Read the complete Puerto de San Glorio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Puerto de San Glorio tops the climb at 1609 m. The road climbs 509 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 10 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Nothing on this route is higher. High enough to hold ice in the shaded corners early and late in the year. Next is Potes, mostly downhill.
Potes is the capital of Liébana, a hidden-away valley in Cantabria that is walled in by the Picos de Europa on three sides and so mild and sheltered that it grows fruit and grapes at the foot of mountains that still carry snow in June. The town sits where the rivers Deva and Quiviesca meet, under a square medieval tower, the Torre del Infantado, with stone bridges, arcaded houses and narrow streets climbing away from the water. It has only a little over a thousand residents, which is why everybody on the street seems to know everybody else.
Read the complete Potes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Potes comes up 114 km in. You lose 1318 m on the way down to it, hard. Next is back through Puerto de San Glorio, climbing 1318 m.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Puerto de San Glorio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
137 km in you reach back through Puerto de San Glorio. The road climbs 1318 m on the way up to it, hard. Next is back through Riaño, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Riaño write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Riaño, late in the day at 1100 m. You lose 509 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through Desfiladero de los Beyos, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Desfiladero de los Beyos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Desfiladero de los Beyos sits at 182 km, late in the day. You lose 700 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through Lagos de Covadonga, climbing 734 m.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lagos de Covadonga write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lagos de Covadonga comes up 205 km in. The road climbs 734 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Cangas de Onís, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cangas de Onís write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Cangas de Onís. That is the ride. You lose 1054 m on the way down to it, hard.