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 Oviedo it runs 354 km to Oviedo; allow about 4 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Tito Bustillo, Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana and back through Tito Bustillo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 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 94 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The hill of Naranco rises just north of Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, and on its slope, among oaks and chestnuts, stand two small stone buildings that are among the oldest and strangest churches in Europe. San Miguel de Lillo is the smaller and the more battered, and it lies a few minutes above Santa María del Naranco, three kilometres from the middle of the city, in a green landscape of meadows and apple orchards.
Read the complete San Miguel de Lillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Miguel de Lillo is where the day begins. Next is Tito Bustillo.
In 1968, a group of young cavers from Ribadesella found their way into a cave system beneath the Ardines hill, just outside the town, and stumbled upon an extraordinary gallery of Palaeolithic art: horses, deer and reindeer, painted in red and black, along with strange red symbols that some interpret as female figures. One of the group, Celestino Fernández Bustillo, known as Tito, died in a mountain accident a few days later, and the cave was named in his honour. Tito Bustillo is one of the most important painted caves in Europe, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain. Visits are limited in number and season to protect the art, and booking in advance is essential.
Read the complete Tito Bustillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tito Bustillo comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Liébana is a green bowl surrounded by mountains, a valley system in south-west Cantabria with the town of Potes at its centre and the limestone towers of the Picos de Europa rising to the north and west. On a hillside above Potes, among oak and chestnut woods, stands the monastery of Santo Toribio, one of the holy places of Christian Spain. It keeps the Lignum Crucis, said to be the largest surviving fragment of the True Cross, and for that reason it holds a jubilee year whenever the feast of Saint Toribio, the sixteenth of April, falls on a Sunday.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 176 km into the recorded legs you reach Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana. Next is back through Tito Bustillo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tito Bustillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tito Bustillo, late in the day. Next is San Miguel de Lillo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Miguel de Lillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at San Miguel de Lillo. That is the ride.
San Miguel de Lillo → Tito Bustillo is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tito Bustillo → Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → back through Tito Bustillo is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tito Bustillo → San Miguel de Lillo is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.