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.
From Pavlovsk it runs 98 km to Pavlovsk; allow about 2 h 06 of riding. On the way it passes Pulkovskaya Observatory, Dudergofskaya Elevation and back through Pulkovskaya Observatory. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Pavlovsk was a gift. In 1777 Catherine the Great gave her son Paul, the future emperor, a stretch of forest and meadow south of Saint Petersburg, and he and his wife Maria Feodorovna turned it into one of the most elegant country residences in Russia. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron designed the palace, a pale yellow building with a shallow dome and a colonnade, and the park, which spreads over some six hundred hectares, was laid out in the English landscape manner, with winding paths, little bridges and pavilions half hidden among the trees. It is among the largest landscape parks in Europe, and walking in it on a quiet morning is a joy.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk is where the day begins. Next is Pulkovskaya Observatory.
On the Pulkovo heights, the low ridge south of St Petersburg, an observatory has been watching the sky since 1839. It was founded by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, the German-born astronomer who became its first director, and it quickly became one of the leading observatories in the world, with the largest refracting telescope of its day. The Pulkovo meridian, running through the observatory's main building, served as the reference for Russian maps for many years. Struve also led the measurement of the Struve Geodetic Arc, a chain of survey triangulations stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, which helped determine the size and shape of the earth and is now a UNESCO site.
Read the complete Pulkovskaya Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pulkovskaya Observatory comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dudergofskaya Elevation.
The land around St Petersburg is almost perfectly flat, so any hill gets noticed. The Duderhof Heights, a pair of wooded hills rising south of the city near Krasnoye Selo, are the highest ground for many kilometres around, with the higher one, Voronya Gora or Crow Hill, reaching a little under two hundred metres above sea level. From the top, on a clear day, you can see the gilded domes of the city and the waters of the Gulf of Finland.
Read the complete Dudergofskaya Elevation write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Dudergofskaya Elevation. Next is back through Pulkovskaya Observatory.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pulkovskaya Observatory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pulkovskaya Observatory, late in the day. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk. That is the ride.
Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk → Pulkovskaya Observatory is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pulkovskaya Observatory → Dudergofskaya Elevation is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dudergofskaya Elevation → back through Pulkovskaya Observatory is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pulkovskaya Observatory → Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.