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 362 km round trip from Santillana - roughly 5 h 09 in the saddle. On the way it passes Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana, Tito Bustillo and back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 95 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The saying goes that Santillana del Mar is the town of three lies, since it is not holy, not flat and has no sea, and the truth is that it is none of those things and one of the prettiest villages in northern Spain. The name comes from Santa Juliana, a martyr whose relics are kept in the collegiate church, and the town grew up around the monastery that held them in the early Middle Ages. Stone houses with carved coats of arms, wooden balconies and cobbled streets line the main road, and cows still wander through the lanes at times.
Read the complete Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître is where the day begins. Next is Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Liébana is a green bowl surrounded by mountains, a valley system in south-west Cantabria with the town of Potes at its centre and the limestone towers of the Picos de Europa rising to the north and west. On a hillside above Potes, among oak and chestnut woods, stands the monastery of Santo Toribio, one of the holy places of Christian Spain. It keeps the Lignum Crucis, said to be the largest surviving fragment of the True Cross, and for that reason it holds a jubilee year whenever the feast of Saint Toribio, the sixteenth of April, falls on a Sunday.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana comes up about 86 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tito Bustillo.
In 1968, a group of young cavers from Ribadesella found their way into a cave system beneath the Ardines hill, just outside the town, and stumbled upon an extraordinary gallery of Palaeolithic art: horses, deer and reindeer, painted in red and black, along with strange red symbols that some interpret as female figures. One of the group, Celestino Fernández Bustillo, known as Tito, died in a mountain accident a few days later, and the cave was named in his honour. Tito Bustillo is one of the most important painted caves in Europe, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain. Visits are limited in number and season to protect the art, and booking in advance is essential.
Read the complete Tito Bustillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach Tito Bustillo. Next is back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana, late in the day. Next is Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître. That is the ride.
Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître → Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → Tito Bustillo is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tito Bustillo → back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → Collégiale de Santa Juliana et son Cloître is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.