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 Racoviţa it runs 336 km to Racoviţa; allow about 6 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Feldioara - Cetățeaua, Village of Valea Viilor and back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 80 km this is Transfăgărășan, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Here the Olt does something that rivers are not supposed to do: it cuts straight through the Carpathians. Between Sibiu and Râmnicu Vâlcea the river runs through a gorge that the Romans knew well, and Racovița lies in its southern stretch, where steep wooded slopes close in on both sides. The Romans built forts along it as part of the Limes Alutanus, and the name Praetorium on our list is one of those, a small fort that guarded the road along the water. Not far away, Caput Stenarum, near Boița, held the pass at the northern end of the gorge.
Read the complete Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate is where the day begins. Next is Feldioara - Cetățeaua.
The Făgăraș mountains are the highest wall in Romania, and from the Olt valley at Ucea they rise like a grey and white curtain across the southern sky, with Moldoveanu and Negoiu, the country's two highest peaks, hidden somewhere in the ridge. Down in the valley, near the villages of Ucea de Jos and Feldioara, the Romans had a fort at a site called Cetățeaua, guarding the Olt route that formed part of the frontier system of Dacia. The remains, earthworks and fragments in the fields, are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Feldioara - Cetățeaua write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Village of Valea Viilor.
Valea Viilor means Valley of the Vineyards, and the name is honest: the slopes around the village were planted with vines long before anyone thought of mapping them. The Saxons called it Wurmloch, and its fortified church, a tall Gothic hall with a defensive storey built over the choir and a ring wall around it, is one of the seven on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Village of Valea Viilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 168 km into the recorded legs you reach Village of Valea Viilor. Next is back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Feldioara - Cetățeaua write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua, late in the day. Next is Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate. That is the ride.
Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate → Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua → Village of Valea Viilor is 88 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Valea Viilor → back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua → Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.