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 603 km round trip from Bilbao - roughly 9 h 54 in the saddle. On the way it passes Santimamiñe, Ekain, Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian and Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 40 km this is Basque Coast Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Down in the Casco Viejo of Bilbao, where the old streets run in a tight grid beside the Nervión, the cathedral of Santiago stands at the heart of the Siete Calles, the seven original streets of the medieval town. It is a Gothic church, rebuilt after a fire in the sixteenth century, with a neo-Gothic façade and spire added later, and it sits so snugly among the tall houses that you often see it only when you are standing right in front of it.
Read the complete Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre is where the day begins. Next is Santimamiñe.
In 1916, a group of boys exploring a hillside in the Basque Country found paintings deep inside a cave, and Santimamiñe became one of the most important prehistoric sites in the region. The cave, near Kortezubi in the Urdaibai valley, contains Magdalenian paintings of bison, horses, goats and deer, made around fourteen thousand years ago, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of cave art of northern Spain. To protect the paintings, the cave itself is closed to the public, but a visitor centre offers a virtual tour that recreates the interior in detail, with guides explaining the art and the people who made it.
Read the complete Santimamiñe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Santimamiñe comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ekain.
In 1969 two young men exploring a hillside above the Sastarrain valley near Zestoa crawled into a narrow opening and found themselves in a gallery of painted horses. Ekain is one of the finest Palaeolithic painted caves in Europe, its walls covered with images of horses, bison and other animals made some fourteen thousand years ago with remarkable skill. The horses in particular are famous, drawn with shaggy manes and round bellies, so lively that they seem about to move.
Read the complete Ekain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 115 km into the recorded legs you reach Ekain. 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, about halfway. 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.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro sits at 200 km, about halfway. Next is back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian comes up about 428 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ekain.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ekain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 487 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ekain. Next is back through Santimamiñe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Santimamiñe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Santimamiñe, late in the day. Next is Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 603 km.
Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre → Santimamiñe is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Santimamiñe → Ekain is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ekain → Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 126 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 126 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → back through Ekain is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ekain → back through Santimamiñe is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Santimamiñe → Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.