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 483 km round trip from San Vicente de la Barquera - roughly 11 h 14 in the saddle. On the way it passes Covaciella, Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria, Eglise San Salvador and back through Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 46 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
On the coast of eastern Asturias, near the village of Pimiango, a cave opens in the cliffs above the sea, and inside, Palaeolithic artists painted and engraved animals on the walls: a mammoth, horses, a bison, a fish, and many red dots and signs. El Pindal is one of the caves included in the World Heritage listing of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain, and its location, with the sea pounding the rocks below and the Picos de Europa rising inland, is spectacular. Visits are limited and guided, to protect the paintings.
Read the complete El Pindal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Pindal is where the day begins. 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.
Covaciella comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria.
The beech forests of Cuesta Fría cling to the north-facing slopes of the Valdeón valley, on the León side of the Picos de Europa, where the limestone mountains rise abruptly above the green of the Cantabrian coast. They are part of a group of old beech woods across Europe that UNESCO recognised for their natural value, because the trees here have grown with little human interference for a very long time. Posada de Valdeón, a village of a few hundred people, lies about five kilometres away.
Read the complete Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria. 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 back through Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria sits at 171 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Covaciella comes up about 437 km into the recorded legs. Next is El Pindal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Pindal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Pindal closes the day.
El Pindal → Covaciella is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Covaciella → Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria → Eglise San Salvador is 107 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglise San Salvador → back through Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria is 106 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hayedos de Picos de Europa - Cuesta Fria → back through Covaciella is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Covaciella → El Pindal is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.