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.
294 km from San Vicente de la Barquera to San Vicente de la Barquera, about 4 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes El Pendo, Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion and back through El Pendo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 is where the day begins. Next is El Pendo.
In 1997, in a cave that people had been visiting for over a century, a group of researchers noticed paintings that everyone had walked past: a frieze of red figures, deer, horses and goats, high on a wall in the main chamber. El Pendo, in the municipality of Camargo just south of Santander, had long been known for its deep layers of Stone Age occupation, but the frieze made it one of the important painted caves of Cantabria, and in 2008 it joined the World Heritage listing of the Paleolithic cave art of northern Spain alongside Altamira.
Read the complete El Pendo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Pendo comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion.
Castro-Urdiales has one of the best harbour fronts on the whole Cantabrian coast, and it knows it. The Gothic church of Santa María de la Asunción stands on a rocky headland above the old port, its buttresses and pinnacles silhouetted against the sea, flanked by the remains of a castle that now holds a lighthouse and by a medieval bridge leading to a little chapel on a rock. Built from the thirteenth century onward, the church is one of the finest Gothic buildings in northern Spain, and it lies on the coastal route of the Way of Saint James, which is part of a UNESCO listing that covers the pilgrimage roads of the north.
Read the complete Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 147 km into the recorded legs you reach Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion. Next is back through El Pendo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Pendo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through El Pendo, late in the day. Next is 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 at Chufín. That is the ride.
Chufín → El Pendo is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Pendo → Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Eglise Santa Maria de la Asuncion → back through El Pendo is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through El Pendo → Chufín is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.