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 284 km round trip from Bilbao - roughly 4 h 10 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz, Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites and back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 81 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing 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 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 comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites. 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, 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.
Back at Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre. That is the ride.
Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre → Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites → back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → Cathédrale de Saint Jacques Apôtre is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.