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.
A 184 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 3 h 43 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Park «Alexandria», Krasnoe Selo, Railway Saint Petersburg - Pavlovsk and back through Krasnoe Selo. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 36 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.
25 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Anyone who rides to Kronstadt today does it along one of the strangest roads in Europe, a long causeway that crosses the Gulf of Finland on top of a flood barrier. The barrier was built to protect Saint Petersburg from storm surges, which have flooded the city many times since its founding, and the road runs along its top. On either side the water is open, grey and wide, with the cranes of the port and the low grey shapes of ships on the horizon. There is little to hold the wind, and a rider will feel every gust.
Read the complete Kronstadtskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kronstadtskoe Highway is where the day begins. Next is The Park «Alexandria».
Alexandria Park is one part of the great Peterhof estate that most visitors skip, which is a good reason to visit it. Peterhof is known for its Grand Cascade and golden statues, the fountains that Peter the Great designed to rival Versailles, and for the crowds that pack the Lower Park in summer. Alexandria, on the other side of the road, is quieter, with winding paths, ponds, old oaks and a collection of small romantic buildings set among the trees.
Read the complete The Park «Alexandria» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Park «Alexandria» comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Krasnoe Selo.
Readers of Anna Karenina will know Krasnoye Selo, even if they have never been within a thousand kilometres of it. It was here, at the summer camp of the imperial guards, that Tolstoy set the officers' steeplechase in which Vronsky rides his mare Frou-Frou to disaster in front of the court. For more than a century, from the early nineteenth century until the revolution, the guards regiments of the Russian army gathered each summer in this area south-west of Saint Petersburg for manoeuvres, parades and horse races, and the tsar and the court came to watch. It is listed as one of the monuments associated with the historic centre of Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete Krasnoe Selo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Krasnoe Selo. Next is Railway Saint Petersburg - Pavlovsk.
Pavlovsk station has a story that every Russian railway enthusiast can tell. The line from Saint Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo opened in the late 1830s, the first public railway in the country, and it was soon extended to Pavlovsk, where a grand station building became a place of concerts and summer entertainment. Johann Strauss the younger came to conduct there in the nineteenth century, and the rich of the capital rode out in their finery to hear him. The railway still runs, though the trains are electric and the concert hall has long gone quiet.
Read the complete Railway Saint Petersburg - Pavlovsk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Railway Saint Petersburg - Pavlovsk, about halfway. Next is back through Krasnoe Selo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krasnoe Selo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Krasnoe Selo sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Park «Alexandria».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Park «Alexandria» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Park «Alexandria» comes up about 150 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kronstadtskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kronstadtskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kronstadtskoe Highway closes the day.
Kronstadtskoe Highway → The Park «Alexandria» is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Park «Alexandria» → Krasnoe Selo is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Krasnoe Selo → Railway Saint Petersburg - Pavlovsk is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Railway Saint Petersburg - Pavlovsk → back through Krasnoe Selo is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Krasnoe Selo → back through The Park «Alexandria» is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Park «Alexandria» → Kronstadtskoe Highway is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.