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 Bernières-sur-Mer it runs 455 km to Bernières-sur-Mer; allow about 6 h 04 of riding. On the way it passes Utah Beach, Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay and back through Utah Beach. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On the morning of 6 June 1944 the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division landed here, between Courseulles-sur-Mer and Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, in the middle of the five Normandy landing beaches. Rough seas delayed the first wave, so the troops arrived after the naval bombardment had lifted and the German defenders had recovered. The fighting on the sea wall and in the seaside villages was fierce, and Canadian casualties that day were heavy, but by evening the division had pushed further inland than any other Allied force. Today the beach is a long, quiet strand of sand, with low dunes, villas with shuttered windows, and a few concrete bunkers still half-buried at the water's edge.
Read the complete Juno Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Juno Beach is where the day begins. Next is Utah Beach.
Low dunes, a wide grey-gold beach and a sky that seems to go on forever: the westernmost of the D-Day landing beaches looks peaceful today. On 6 June 1944, troops of the US 4th Infantry Division came ashore here, on the eastern coast of the Cotentin peninsula, after paratroopers had dropped inland during the night. A current pushed the first landing craft south of their intended sector, onto a less defended stretch of sand, and Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., walking the beach with a cane, decided to start the war from right there. Casualties at Utah were far lower than at Omaha, a few kilometres to the east.
Read the complete Utah Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Utah Beach comes up about 87 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay.
The tide here is one of the great shows of Europe. In the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel the sea can retreat for kilometres and return with a speed that has caught out many walkers, and at the biggest tides the difference between high and low water is around fourteen metres. On those days the mount, a rocky island crowned with a Benedictine abbey, can be surrounded by water, or stand alone on a plain of wet sand, depending on the hour. The causeway that used to link it to the shore has been replaced by a bridge so that the water can flow freely again.
Read the complete Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 227 km into the recorded legs you reach Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay. Next is back through Utah Beach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Utah Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Utah Beach, late in the day. Next is Juno Beach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Juno Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Juno Beach. That is the ride.
Juno Beach → Utah Beach is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Utah Beach → Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay → back through Utah Beach is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Utah Beach → Juno Beach is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.