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.
272 km from Kronstadt to Kronstadt, about 4 h 03 of riding. On the way it passes Ropshinskoe Highway, The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town, The Blocade Ring and back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 40 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
This part of the ride is 38 km of Ropshinskoe Highway → The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town .
Fort Obruchev stands on a man-made islet in the shallows of the Gulf of Finland, one of the chain of sea forts that gave Kronstadt its reputation as the strongest naval fortress in the world. Named, as I understand it, for General Nikolai Obruchev, a leading military planner of the late nineteenth century, it belongs to the northern line of the defences, built of granite and brick with casemates facing the main channel. Eight kilometres from Kronstadt town, it is reachable by boat or visible from the ring road across the dam, and in practice many of these forts are closed, derelict and under military control, so view it from a distance rather than expecting to land.
Read the complete Fort «Obrutchev» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Obrutchev» is where the day begins. Next is Ropshinskoe Highway.
Ropshinskoe Highway is the road that leaves the Gulf of Finland behind at Peterhof and climbs gently south towards Ropsha, and for a ride that starts and ends here it is a good place to look at a map and understand the ground. You are on the edge of the Izhora upland, a low limestone step above the coast. It never looks like much from the saddle, a few tens of metres of rise through birch and pine, but in this flat country that step decided who could see whom, and that mattered enormously in the last century.
Read the complete Ropshinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ropshinskoe Highway comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town.
Between 1941 and 1944 Tsarskoye Selo lay behind German lines, and when the Red Army came back the Catherine Palace was a shell. The Amber Room's panels had vanished, the park trees had been cut for firewood, and most of the interiors were ash. The restoration that followed, and the new Amber Room that finally reopened in 2003, make this one of the most remarkable rebuilding jobs in Europe. The town, now called Pushkin after the poet who studied at its Lyceum, is part of the UNESCO listing for the historic centre of Saint Petersburg, and the ensemble of palaces, pavilions and parks around it is the reason to come.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town. Next is The Blocade Ring.
The Blockade Ring stands on the south bank of the Neva, east of Saint Petersburg, close to where the Road of Life began its journey toward Lake Ladoga. It commemorates the siege of Leningrad, which lasted from September 1941 to January 1944, roughly 872 days, and the corridor that kept the city alive. When Shlisselburg fell in September 1941, the city was cut off by land, and the only lifeline ran across Ladoga, by boat in summer and over the ice in winter.
Read the complete The Blocade Ring write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Blocade Ring, about halfway. Next is back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ropshinskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ropshinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ropshinskoe Highway comes up about 232 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort «Obrutchev».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Obrutchev» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Obrutchev» closes the day.
Fort «Obrutchev» → Ropshinskoe Highway is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ropshinskoe Highway → The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town → The Blocade Ring is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Blocade Ring → back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town → back through Ropshinskoe Highway is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ropshinskoe Highway → Fort «Obrutchev» is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.