CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
From Riaza it runs 399 km to Riaza; allow about 6 h 17 of riding. It goes by way of Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct, Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás and back through Monastery and Site of the Escurial. 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.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 54 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Beech forests are rare in the Spanish interior, and the Hayedo de la Tejera Negra, in the Sierra de Ayllón, is one of the southernmost in Europe, a relic of a colder age that has survived on the shaded north slopes of the range. It lies in the province of Guadalajara, about eight kilometres from Riaza and just across the border from Segovia, at an altitude of well over a thousand metres, and is protected as a natural park. In October the leaves turn gold and copper, and the forest becomes one of the best autumn spectacles in central Spain, so popular that the park limits visitors and asks you to book.
Read the complete Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra is where the day begins. Next is Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct.
The Roman aqueduct of Segovia strides through the middle of the city on two tiers of granite arches, nearly thirty metres high at its tallest point, built without a drop of mortar, the stones held together by their own weight. It was probably built around the end of the first century or early second century AD, and it carried water to the city until well into modern times. Standing beneath it in the Plaza del Azoguejo, with traffic and people flowing around the base, you can only marvel at the skill of the engineers who built it almost two thousand years ago. The old town and the aqueduct were listed by UNESCO in 1985.
Read the complete Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct comes up 70 km in. Next is Monastery and Site of the Escurial.
Philip II began the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 1563 and it was finished in 1584, a short time for a building of its size. It sits on the southern slope of the Sierra de Guadarrama, about fifty kilometres north-west of Madrid, and the two towns beside it, San Lorenzo de El Escorial and El Escorial, are small, tidy and slightly prosperous, living partly off the building that gave them their name.
Read the complete Monastery and Site of the Escurial write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
140 km in you reach Monastery and Site of the Escurial. Next is Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás.
Ávila is the highest provincial capital in Spain, at more than eleven hundred metres, and the cold, clear air gives the whole city a sharp, medieval edge. Its granite walls, about two and a half kilometres around and punctuated by dozens of towers, are among the best preserved in Europe. Just outside them, the Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás is a different sort of monument: a Dominican house founded in the 1480s by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, who used it as a summer retreat. It is also the burial place of Tomás de Torquemada, the notorious first Inquisitor General, and of Prince Juan, the monarchs' only son, who died young, and whose marble tomb is one of the finest Renaissance sculptures in Spain.
Read the complete Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás, about halfway. Next is back through Monastery and Site of the Escurial.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery and Site of the Escurial write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monastery and Site of the Escurial sits at 280 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct comes up 350 km in. Next is Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra closes the day.
Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra → Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct → Monastery and Site of the Escurial is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery and Site of the Escurial → Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás → back through Monastery and Site of the Escurial is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastery and Site of the Escurial → back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct → Hayedos de Ayllon - Tejera Negra is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.