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.
154 km from San Millán de la Cogolla to San Millán de la Cogolla, about 2 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro, Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz and back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 35 km this is La Rioja Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
43 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.
The Spanish language did not spring up all at once, and if you want to see a place where it first stepped on to the page, you come to San Millán de la Cogolla. In two monasteries, Suso above and Yuso below, in a green valley of the Sierra de la Demanda, monks of the tenth and eleventh centuries made notes in the margins of a Latin manuscript, translating hard words into the speech of ordinary people, in a form that has been identified as one of the earliest written Castilian and, in a few lines, Basque. Those notes are known as the Glosas Emilianenses, and the monasteries were listed by UNESCO in 1997.
Read the complete San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries is where the day begins. Next is Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro.
Every year on the morning of 29 June, the people of Haro climb a hill outside town and drench each other in red wine, and nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why this needs to happen at nine in the morning. The Batalla del Vino is the loudest expression of a town that lives and breathes wine. Haro is the heart of Rioja Alta, and just outside it the old stone bridge at Briñas crosses the Ebro, a medieval structure of solid arches that has carried travellers, mule trains and wine carts across the river for centuries.
Read the complete Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital of the Basque Country and possibly its most underrated city. It sits on a high plateau, the Llanada Alavesa, surrounded by low mountains and wide farmland, and its medieval old town climbs a small hill in the shape of an almond, with the old cathedral of Santa María at the top. This is the cathedral the label refers to, a Gothic church begun in the thirteenth century as both a temple and part of the town's defences.
Read the complete Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz. Next is back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro, late in the day. Next is San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries. That is the ride.
San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries → Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro → San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.