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 450 km round trip from San Vicente de la Barquera - roughly 6 h 46 in the saddle. On the way it passes Altamira, La Garma, Covalanas and Vizcaya Bridge. 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 Altamira.
In 1879 a nine-year-old girl named María was exploring a cave near Santillana del Mar with her father, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, an amateur archaeologist. While he dug in the floor, she looked up at the ceiling and saw painted animals. The bison of Altamira, painted in red and black on the uneven rock so that their bodies seem to swell and move in the flickering light, are among the greatest works of prehistoric art in the world. When Sautuola published his discovery, most experts refused to believe that cavemen could have produced such sophisticated paintings, and he was accused of fraud. He died before he was vindicated; only after similar paintings were found in France did the leading sceptic, Émile Cartailhac, publish a famous apology. Altamira was listed by UNESCO in 1985.
Read the complete Altamira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Altamira comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Garma.
La Garma is a low limestone hill a few kilometres inland from the Bay of Santander, green with meadows and oak scrub, the sort of rounded Cantabrian hump you might ride past without a second glance. Inside it lies one of the most important prehistoric caves in Europe. Found by chance in the 1990s, the cave of La Garma contains not just paintings but preserved living floors from the Palaeolithic: hearths, bones, tools and the outlines of shelters left exactly as they were when a rockfall sealed the entrance thousands of years ago. It forms part of the UNESCO site of the Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain.
Read the complete La Garma write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach La Garma. Next is Covalanas.
Covalanas is known as the cave of the red deer. Its walls carry red ochre paintings of hinds, drawn in a distinctive dotted technique, and they are among the finest Palaeolithic paintings in the Cantabrian region. The cave sits on a steep, wooded hillside above Ramales de la Victoria, in eastern Cantabria, and it was one of the first painted caves to be recognised in Spain, in the early twentieth century. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain, and visits are limited to small groups, so booking ahead is advisable.
Read the complete Covalanas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Covalanas, about halfway. Next is Vizcaya Bridge.
Few riders get the chance to cross a river hanging from a bridge, but at Portugalete you can. The Vizcaya Bridge, opened in 1893 across the mouth of the Nervión just downstream of Bilbao, is the oldest transporter bridge in the world: a tall iron structure from which a gondola, suspended on cables, glides from one bank to the other carrying cars, motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians in a couple of minutes. It was designed by the Basque architect Alberto de Palacio, often described as a disciple of Gustave Eiffel, to let tall ships pass beneath while still linking the two towns, and UNESCO listed it in 2006.
Read the complete Vizcaya Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vizcaya Bridge sits at 175 km, about halfway. Next is back through Covalanas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Covalanas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Covalanas comes up about 297 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through La Garma.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Garma write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 341 km into the recorded legs you reach back through La Garma. Next is back through Altamira.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Altamira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Altamira, 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.
The route ends here after 450 km.
Chufín → Altamira is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Altamira → La Garma is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Garma → Covalanas is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Covalanas → Vizcaya Bridge is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vizcaya Bridge → back through Covalanas is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Covalanas → back through La Garma is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Garma → back through Altamira is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Altamira → Chufín is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.