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 Petrodvorets it runs 62 km to Petrodvorets; allow about 1 h 24 of riding. The stops in between: A.F.Orlov's Datcha, Volkhonskoe Highway and back through A.F.Orlov's Datcha. 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 15 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Peter the Great wanted a palace by the sea that would rival Versailles, and he chose this stretch of the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, about thirty kilometres west of Saint Petersburg. What became Peterhof is a town built around an imperial residence: the Grand Palace on a terrace above the sea, the Grand Cascade of gilded statues and fountains falling toward a canal that runs straight to the water, and parks full of pavilions, including Peter's own small Dutch style house, Monplaisir, right on the shore. The fountains run on gravity, fed by springs on the higher ground inland, a feat of eighteenth century engineering.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof is where the day begins. Next is A.F.Orlov's Datcha, 17 km on.
Strelna lies on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, on the road to Peterhof, and it is where Peter the Great first thought of building his seaside palace before he settled on the site a few kilometres to the west.
Read the complete A.F.Orlov's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A.F.Orlov's Datcha comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Volkhonskoe Highway.
The Volkhonskoe Highway is not a scenic mountain road but a historic route on the southern edge of Saint Petersburg, running out from the city towards Gorelovo and the old road to Krasnoye Selo. It belongs to the network of eighteenth and nineteenth century highways that linked the capital with the imperial residences and military camps to the south and west, and it is included in the wider protected area of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its related monuments. What you see today is a mix of suburban growth, open fields and stretches of tree-lined road, with the ghosts of history underneath.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Volkhonskoe Highway. Next is back through A.F.Orlov's Datcha, 17 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete A.F.Orlov's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through A.F.Orlov's Datcha, late in the day. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof. That is the ride.
Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof → A.F.Orlov's Datcha is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
A.F.Orlov's Datcha → Volkhonskoe Highway is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Volkhonskoe Highway → back through A.F.Orlov's Datcha is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through A.F.Orlov's Datcha → Historical Centre of the Town of Peterhof is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.