Roșiorii de Vede - Valea Urlui and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
428 km
Riding-time estimate
10 h 31
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
428 km from Roșiorii de Vede to Roșiorii de Vede, about 10 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor, Izbășești - Valea Albă, Stolniceni - Buridava Romană and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Roșiorii de Vede - Valea Urlui
Southern Romania is as flat as a table, and the Teleorman plain, through which the river Vedea flows towards the Danube, is wheat and sunflower country as far as the eye can see. The Romans pushed their frontier across this plain in the second century, building a long earthen rampart known as the Limes Transalutanus, east of the Olt river, with a ditch and a line of forts and towers behind it. Near Roșiorii de Vede, at Valea Urlui, one of these sites is part of the Roman frontier of Dacia listed by UNESCO. The rampart can still be traced in places as a low bank running through the fields, and on the ground you need a good eye, or a guide, to spot it. From the air it is much clearer.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roșiorii de Vede - Valea Urlui is where the day begins. Next is Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.
2. Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor
Out on the flat Romanian plain east of the Olt river, the village of Crâmpoia sits among endless fields of wheat, maize and sunflowers, and its name has a place in Roman history. A Roman earthen fort near the village stood on the Limes Transalutanus, the frontier line that the Romans built east of the Olt in the early third century, running from the Danube northward toward the Carpathians, a long earthen rampart with forts and watchtowers. The local name Reduta Tătarilor, the Tatars' redoubt, reflects a common habit in Romania of attributing old earthworks to the Tatars or other invaders, long after the Romans were forgotten. The site is part of the UNESCO-listed frontier of Dacia.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izbășești - Valea Albă.
3. Izbășești - Valea Albă
Between Pitești and Slatina, in the south of Romania, the land falls away from the Carpathian foothills towards the great Danube plain in a series of long, low ridges cut by streams. It is farming country, with fields of maize and sunflowers, orchards, vineyards and small villages strung along the valleys. Izbășești and the valley called Valea Albă, the White Valley, lie in this landscape near the small town of Stolnici, and the site recorded here is one of the many archaeological traces in the area, though there is probably little to see on the ground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Izbășești - Valea Albă. Next is Stolniceni - Buridava Romană.
4. Stolniceni - Buridava Romană
South of Râmnicu Vâlcea the Olt river leaves the mountains and broadens across a valley of orchards and villages, and on the terraces above it at Stolniceni lie the remains of Buridava, a Roman military settlement whose name the Romans borrowed from an older Dacian centre nearby. It sat on the Limes Alutanus, the frontier road along the Olt that guarded the eastern edge of Roman Dacia, and soldiers stationed here left inscriptions, bricks stamped with unit marks and the foundations of baths. The site is part of the Dacian frontier listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană, about halfway. Next is Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
5. Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari
The Olt is the river that cuts through the Carpathians, and wherever a river does that, an army will want to sit beside it. At Păușa, near Călimănești, the Romans built a small fort called Arutela to guard the road through the Olt valley, part of the defensive line that protected their province of Dacia after Trajan's conquest at the start of the second century. The fort's remains lie by the river, partly lost to floods and later works, and are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari to back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană to back through Izbășești - Valea Albă
back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → back through Izbășești - Valea Albă is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Izbășești - Valea Albă to back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor
back through Izbășești - Valea Albă → back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor to Roșiorii de Vede - Valea Urlui
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → Roșiorii de Vede - Valea Urlui is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.