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.
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 480 km round trip from Ibeas de Juarros - roughly 7 h 48 in the saddle. On the way it passes Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites, Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro, Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz and Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
For 39 km this is La Rioja Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
43 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Atapuerca does not look like much from the road: low, scrubby hills, a railway cutting, oaks and gorse. But the limestone caves here have yielded some of the most important remains in the history of humanity. In the Gran Dolina, archaeologists found bones of Homo antecessor, around 850,000 years old, among the oldest human fossils in Western Europe, and in the Sima de los Huesos, a deep pit, they found the remains of at least twenty-eight individuals about 430,000 years old. UNESCO listed the site in 2000.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Atapuerca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is where the day begins. Next is Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites.
In a quiet valley in the foothills of the Sierra de la Demanda, in La Rioja, two monasteries stand one above the other, and between them they tell a story that matters to hundreds of millions of people. The upper monastery, Suso, is small and ancient, built partly into caves on the hillside where the hermit Saint Aemilian, San Millán, lived in the sixth century. The lower monastery, Yuso, is a grand complex of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, sometimes called the Escorial of La Rioja. Together they were listed by UNESCO in 1997, recognised as the birthplace of the written Spanish language.
Read the complete Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites comes up 49 km in. Next is Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro.
Every year on the morning of 29 June, the people of Haro climb a hill outside town and drench each other in red wine, and nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why this needs to happen at nine in the morning. The Batalla del Vino is the loudest expression of a town that lives and breathes wine. Haro is the heart of Rioja Alta, and just outside it the old stone bridge at Briñas crosses the Ebro, a medieval structure of solid arches that has carried travellers, mule trains and wine carts across the river for centuries.
Read the complete Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
97 km in you reach Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. Next is Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital of the Basque Country and possibly its most underrated city. It sits on a high plateau, the Llanada Alavesa, surrounded by low mountains and wide farmland, and its medieval old town climbs a small hill in the shape of an almond, with the old cathedral of Santa María at the top. This is the cathedral the label refers to, a Gothic church begun in the thirteenth century as both a temple and part of the town's defences.
Read the complete Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz, about halfway. Next is Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian.
Imagine a mountain with a hole through it, and a medieval road running straight through the hole. The tunnel of San Adrián is a natural cave passage near the crest of the Aizkorri range, on the border of Gipuzkoa and Álava, and for centuries it carried one of the main routes between the Castilian plateau and the Basque coast. Pilgrims on the inland Camino de Santiago, merchants, armies and kings all passed through it, and a small chapel was built inside the cave. The old paved road leading up to it survives in sections, worn smooth by centuries of hooves and boots.
Read the complete Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian sits at 195 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz comes up 243 km in. Next is back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
292 km in you reach back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. Next is back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites, late in the day. Next is Archaeological Site of Atapuerca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Atapuerca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 480 km.
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca → Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites → Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites → Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.