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.
453 km from Santillana to Santillana, about 6 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Chufín, Covaciella, Eglise San Salvador and Basilica of San Julián de los Prados. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In 1879 a little girl lost interest in her father's digging and wandered further into a cave in Cantabria. She looked up and saw bulls on the ceiling. The father, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a local landowner and amateur archaeologist, was digging in the floor of Altamira, a cave a hunter had stumbled on some years earlier. When he announced that the paintings were of the Ice Age, the experts of Europe laughed at him, and it was not until 1902, after similar paintings turned up in France, that the leading sceptic published a famous apology. Sautuola died long before that.
Read the complete Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art is where the day begins. Next is Chufín.
The Nansa is one of the shortest and wildest rivers in Cantabria, running from the high mountains on the edge of the Picos de Europa to the Bay of Biscay, and halfway along its course, near the hamlet of Riclones, a cave opens in the limestone above the water. This is the Cueva de Chufín, where Palaeolithic people engraved and painted animals, signs and symbols on the walls thousands of years ago. It is one of the caves of the Cantabrian coast included in the World Heritage site of Altamira and Palaeolithic cave art of northern Spain.
Read the complete Chufín write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chufín comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Covaciella.
Between the coastal town of Llanes and the high limestone walls of the Picos de Europa, a small cave near Carreña de Cabrales holds images that have been in the dark for something like fifteen thousand years. Covaciella was only found in the 1990s, and its paintings of bison, horses and deer, in black and red, are among the finest examples of Palaeolithic art in Asturias. It was added to the UNESCO listing of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain in 2008. The cave is closed to the public to protect the paintings, but the nearby interpretation centre explains what is inside and why it matters.
Read the complete Covaciella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 105 km into the recorded legs you reach Covaciella. Next is Eglise San Salvador.
Tucked into a narrow valley a few kilometres south of Villaviciosa, the little church of San Salvador de Valdediós is one of the jewels of Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture. Locals call it El Conventín, the little convent, and it was consecrated at the end of the ninth century under King Alfonso III, during the period when the small Kingdom of Asturias was the only Christian state in Iberia not under Muslim rule. Its tall, narrow nave, round arches and delicate stone lattice windows give it a strangely intimate atmosphere.
Read the complete Eglise San Salvador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglise San Salvador, about halfway. Next is Basilica of San Julián de los Prados.
Asturias had a king who believed in building well, and Alfonso II, known as the Chaste, is the reason the church of San Julián de los Prados exists. He made Oviedo his capital in the early ninth century, and the basilica, known locally as Santullano, was raised outside the city walls around the year 830. It is the largest church of the Asturian pre-Romanesque style, a plain, tall building of stone with a red-tiled roof, and it has one thing that makes it unique.
Read the complete Basilica of San Julián de los Prados write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Basilica of San Julián de los Prados sits at 199 km, about halfway. Next is back through Eglise San Salvador.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglise San Salvador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Eglise San Salvador comes up about 279 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Covaciella.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Covaciella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 348 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Covaciella. Next is back through Chufín.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chufín write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chufín, late in the day. Next is Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 453 km.
Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art → Chufín is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chufín → Covaciella is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Covaciella → Eglise San Salvador is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglise San Salvador → Basilica of San Julián de los Prados is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Basilica of San Julián de los Prados → back through Eglise San Salvador is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Eglise San Salvador → back through Covaciella is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Covaciella → back through Chufín is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chufín → Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.