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.
From Burgos it runs 355 km to Burgos; allow about 5 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites, Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro, San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries and back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 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 36 km this is La Rioja Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Burgos Cathedral took its time. Work began in 1221 under Bishop Mauricio and King Fernando III, and the building grew in stages for three centuries, which is why it contains a French-inspired Gothic nave, a Renaissance golden staircase by Diego de Siloé, a Constable's chapel of astonishing complexity and, above the crossing, an octagonal lantern whose star-vault, rebuilt in the sixteenth century, is a masterpiece of Renaissance ornament. The two openwork spires of the façade were added in the fifteenth century by a craftsman from Cologne, Johann, and they give the building its unmistakable outline. UNESCO listed the cathedral in 1984, one of the first Spanish sites to be added.
Read the complete Burgos Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgos Cathedral 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 about 122 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. Next is San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries.
The Spanish language did not spring up all at once, and if you want to see a place where it first stepped on to the page, you come to San Millán de la Cogolla. In two monasteries, Suso above and Yuso below, in a green valley of the Sierra de la Demanda, monks of the tenth and eleventh centuries made notes in the margins of a Latin manuscript, translating hard words into the speech of ordinary people, in a form that has been identified as one of the earliest written Castilian and, in a few lines, Basque. Those notes are known as the Glosas Emilianenses, and the monasteries were listed by UNESCO in 1997.
Read the complete San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries, about halfway. 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.
back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro sits at 228 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 264 km into the recorded legs. Next is Burgos Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Burgos Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgos Cathedral closes the day.
Burgos Cathedral → Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites is 122 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 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries → back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 35 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 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites → Burgos Cathedral is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.