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 San Lorenzo de El Escorial it runs 291 km to San Lorenzo de El Escorial; allow about 4 h 38 of riding. The stops in between: Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct, Hayedos de Ayllon - Montejo and back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
58 km on Palace → Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct.
74 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.
Philip II wanted a monastery, a palace, a royal tomb and a college all in one building, and in the 1560s he got it, in the shadow of the Sierra de Guadarrama. The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial took about twenty years to build, under the architects Juan de Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo, and it is made of pale grey granite, severe and symmetrical, with slate spires and almost no decoration outside. The king had vowed to build a monastery to St Lawrence after a victory over the French at St Quentin in 1557, and the plan of the building is said to echo the gridiron on which the saint was martyred.
Read the complete Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palace is where the day begins. Next is Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct.
The Roman aqueduct of Segovia strides through the middle of the city on two tiers of granite arches, nearly thirty metres high at its tallest point, built without a drop of mortar, the stones held together by their own weight. It was probably built around the end of the first century or early second century AD, and it carried water to the city until well into modern times. Standing beneath it in the Plaza del Azoguejo, with traffic and people flowing around the base, you can only marvel at the skill of the engineers who built it almost two thousand years ago. The old town and the aqueduct were listed by UNESCO in 1985.
Read the complete Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hayedos de Ayllon - Montejo.
Beech trees at the southern edge of their range look different from the northern kind, and anyone who has stood in the Hayedo de Montejo in October will tell you why. This is a small forest on the northern slopes of the Sierra del Rincón, in the far north of the Madrid region, above the village of Montejo de la Sierra, and it is the southernmost beech wood in Europe of its type. It survives in a cool, damp pocket left over from the last Ice Age, and in 2017 it was added to the UNESCO list of ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe.
Read the complete Hayedos de Ayllon - Montejo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Hayedos de Ayllon - Montejo. Next is back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct, late in the day. Next is Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Palace. That is the ride.
Palace → Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct → Hayedos de Ayllon - Montejo is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hayedos de Ayllon - Montejo → back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct → Palace is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.