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.
481 km from Araia to Araia, about 7 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz, Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro, Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites and Archaeological Site of Atapuerca. 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.
41 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.
For about 36 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.
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 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 85 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 127 km into the recorded legs you reach Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. 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, about halfway. Next is Archaeological Site of Atapuerca.
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 sits at 195 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 316 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 352 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. 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 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.
The route ends here after 481 km.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites → Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca → back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Suso Monastery and Archaeological Sites → back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 36 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 Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.