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 Gatchina it runs 311 km to Gatchina; allow about 5 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Tallinskoe Highway, Oranienbaumsky Springboard, The Coastal Fort «Reef» and The Palace and Park of the Znamenskaya Dat. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For 35 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.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 34 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Gatchina is the kind of town you reach by flat, straight Ingrian roads, and the first impression is of birch, pine and wide skies rather than anything dramatic. Forty-odd kilometres south-west of St Petersburg, it sits on land that was once swampy and sparsely settled, until the eighteenth century decided otherwise. Catherine the Great gave the estate to her favourite Grigory Orlov, and the architect Antonio Rinaldi built him a severe, castle-like palace of local limestone beside a lake. After Orlov died it passed to her son Paul, who made it his private kingdom, drilled his soldiers on the parade ground and added the odd fortress-style touches that suited his nature.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is where the day begins. Next is Tallinskoe Highway.
Not every historic road is a pretty one, and the Tallinn highway on the south-western edge of St Petersburg is not trying to win prizes for charm. It is, however, one of the old imperial routes out of the capital, the road toward Narva and Reval, today's Tallinn, and as such it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the historic centre of St Petersburg and its related monuments, which includes the network of roads tying the city to its palaces and estates. Along it, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries planted suburban residences, military camps and post stations.
Read the complete Tallinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tallinskoe Highway comes up 34 km in. Next is Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
The Oranienbaum Springboard is not a single building but a piece of ground, and once you know the story the low woods and fields south of the Gulf of Finland look entirely different. In September 1941, as German and Finnish forces closed the ring around Leningrad, a pocket of coast around Oranienbaum, today's Lomonosov, held out. It was cut off from the city by land, supplied across the water and under the guns of Kronstadt, and it never fell. In January 1944 the Second Shock Army broke out of this pocket as one jaw of the offensive that finally lifted the siege.
Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
69 km in you reach Oranienbaumsky Springboard. Next is The Coastal Fort «Reef».
In the shallow, grey waters of the Gulf of Finland, a chain of fortified islands guards the sea approach to Saint Petersburg. Peter the Great founded the naval base of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island in 1703, and over the following two centuries forts were built on artificial islets and reefs to the north and south, to form a defensive screen. In many cases the forts are military or ruined, and visits require permission.
Read the complete The Coastal Fort «Reef» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Coastal Fort «Reef», about halfway. Next is The Palace and Park of the Znamenskaya Dat.
South-west of Saint Petersburg, along the shore of the Gulf of Finland, the land is a continuous belt of imperial estates. Peterhof is the best known, with its gilded fountains and long terraces, but behind it and around it is a countryside of parks, dachas and country palaces built by the imperial family and the aristocracy from the eighteenth century onward. Znamenka was one of these. The name comes from the Znamenie, the Sign, and the estate had a palace and a park that served as a summer residence, laid out in the landscape style that was fashionable in the nineteenth century.
Read the complete The Palace and Park of the Znamenskaya Dat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Palace and Park of the Znamenskaya Dat sits at 138 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Coastal Fort «Reef».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Coastal Fort «Reef» comes up 172 km in. Next is back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
206 km in you reach back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard. Next is back through Tallinskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tallinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tallinskoe Highway, late in the day. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 275 km.
Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina → Tallinskoe Highway is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tallinskoe Highway → Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oranienbaumsky Springboard → The Coastal Fort «Reef» is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Coastal Fort «Reef» → The Palace and Park of the Znamenskaya Dat is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park of the Znamenskaya Dat → Back to Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard → back through Tallinskoe Highway is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tallinskoe Highway → Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.