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.
430 km from Los Corrales de Buelna to Los Corrales de Buelna, about 6 h 44 of riding. It goes by way of Chemin de la Liébana, Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana, Covaciella and El Pindal. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 61 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Above the village of San Felices de Buelna, on a limestone hillside in the Besaya valley of Cantabria, a cave called Hornos de la Peña holds engravings made by Palaeolithic hunters. The most famous is the outline of a horse, scratched into the rock thousands of years ago, along with other animals and signs that take time and a good guide to pick out. The cave is one of the seventeen in northern Spain listed by UNESCO alongside Altamira, and visits are limited and guided, so check ahead rather than simply turning up.
Read the complete Hornos de la Peña write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hornos de la Peña is where the day begins. Next is Chemin de la Liébana.
San Vicente de la Barquera is where the Camino Lebaniego begins, the old pilgrim route that leaves the Cantabrian coast and climbs south into the mountains of Liébana to the monastery of Santo Toribio. The town sits on a pair of estuaries, with a long medieval bridge carrying the road across the water, a castle and the Gothic church of Santa María above the harbour, and on clear days the snowy peaks of the Picos de Europa rising behind the marshes like a stage set.
Read the complete Chemin de la Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chemin de la Liébana comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Liébana is a green bowl surrounded by mountains, a valley system in south-west Cantabria with the town of Potes at its centre and the limestone towers of the Picos de Europa rising to the north and west. On a hillside above Potes, among oak and chestnut woods, stands the monastery of Santo Toribio, one of the holy places of Christian Spain. It keeps the Lignum Crucis, said to be the largest surviving fragment of the True Cross, and for that reason it holds a jubilee year whenever the feast of Saint Toribio, the sixteenth of April, falls on a Sunday.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana. Next is Covaciella.
Between the coastal town of Llanes and the high limestone walls of the Picos de Europa, a small cave near Carreña de Cabrales holds images that have been in the dark for something like fifteen thousand years. Covaciella was only found in the 1990s, and its paintings of bison, horses and deer, in black and red, are among the finest examples of Palaeolithic art in Asturias. It was added to the UNESCO listing of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain in 2008. The cave is closed to the public to protect the paintings, but the nearby interpretation centre explains what is inside and why it matters.
Read the complete Covaciella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Covaciella, about halfway. Next is El Pindal.
On the coast of eastern Asturias, near the village of Pimiango, a cave opens in the cliffs above the sea, and inside, Palaeolithic artists painted and engraved animals on the walls: a mammoth, horses, a bison, a fish, and many red dots and signs. El Pindal is one of the caves included in the World Heritage listing of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain, and its location, with the sea pounding the rocks below and the Picos de Europa rising inland, is spectacular. Visits are limited and guided, to protect the paintings.
Read the complete El Pindal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Pindal sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Covaciella.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Covaciella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Covaciella comes up about 267 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 327 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana. Next is back through Chemin de la Liébana.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chemin de la Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chemin de la Liébana, late in the day. Next is Hornos de la Peña.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hornos de la Peña write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 430 km.
Hornos de la Peña → Chemin de la Liébana is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chemin de la Liébana → Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → Covaciella is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Covaciella → El Pindal is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Pindal → back through Covaciella is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Covaciella → back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → back through Chemin de la Liébana is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chemin de la Liébana → Hornos de la Peña is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.