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.
508 km from Sosnovaya Polyana to Sosnovaya Polyana, about 8 h 24 of riding. The stops in between: The Maximov's Datcha, The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» and Fort «Ino». 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 41 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Peterhofskaya Road was once the grandest road out of St Petersburg. Running southwest from the city along the shore of the Gulf of Finland toward Strelna and Peterhof, it was lined in the eighteenth century with country estates, dachas and palaces built by the nobility, who wanted to be close to the imperial residences along the coast. Peter the Great started the trend, granting plots to courtiers along the road, and the result was a chain of estates with gardens, parks and ponds stretching for miles. Many of these estates survive in some form, and the road and its surroundings are part of the UNESCO listing of the historic centre of St Petersburg and related groups of monuments.
Read the complete Peterhofskaya Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peterhofskaya Road is where the day begins. Next is The Maximov's Datcha.
The south shore of the Gulf of Finland west of St Petersburg is a strip of dachas, palaces and old military ground, and the place marked here as Maximov's Datcha sits within it, a couple of kilometres from the town of Lomonosov.
Read the complete The Maximov's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Maximov's Datcha comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», 39 km on.
In 1903 the painter Ilya Repin, the most famous Russian artist of his day, moved to a wooden house in the village of Kuokkala on the Gulf of Finland, which he named the Penates, after the Roman household gods. He lived and worked there until his death in 1930, and after Finnish independence in 1917, he found himself living abroad, refusing invitations to return to the Soviet Union. The house, with its glass-roofed studio and eccentric architecture, was destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt afterwards, and it is now a museum with many of his paintings and possessions.
Read the complete The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 91 km into the recorded legs you reach The I.Repin Estate «The Penates». Next is Fort «Krasnaya Gorka».
On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, near the village of Lebyazhye, the remains of Fort Krasnaya Gorka sit among pine woods and sand dunes. The fort was built in the years before the First World War as part of a chain of coastal defences protecting the approaches to St Petersburg, with heavy guns facing the sea and their counterparts on the opposite shore at Ino, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland. Together, the forts were designed to close the gulf to an enemy fleet.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka», about halfway. Next is Fort «Ino».
In pine woods on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, west of the resort strip of Zelenogorsk, lie the shattered concrete remains of Fort Ino. It was built from 1909 as part of the defences of Saint Petersburg, a key battery of Peter the Great's Naval Fortress, designed to close the gulf to enemy fleets with heavy guns. When Finland became independent, the fort ended up on Finnish territory, and under the Treaty of Tartu in 1920 its fortifications were to be dismantled, which is why what remains today is mostly blasted concrete, scattered among the trees and dunes.
Read the complete Fort «Ino» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Ino» sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» comes up about 356 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», 39 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 422 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates». Next is back through The Maximov's Datcha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Maximov's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Maximov's Datcha, late in the day. Next is Peterhofskaya Road.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peterhofskaya Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 508 km.
Peterhofskaya Road → The Maximov's Datcha is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Maximov's Datcha → The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» → Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» → Fort «Ino» is 105 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort «Ino» → back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort «Krasnaya Gorka» → back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» → back through The Maximov's Datcha is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Maximov's Datcha → Peterhofskaya Road is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.