CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
A 446 km round trip from San Millán de la Cogolla - roughly 7 h 48 in the saddle. The stops in between: Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro, Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz, Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian and Ekain. 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 40 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.
44 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 42 km in. 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.
85 km in you reach Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz. Next is Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian.
Imagine a mountain with a hole through it, and a medieval road running straight through the hole. The tunnel of San Adrián is a natural cave passage near the crest of the Aizkorri range, on the border of Gipuzkoa and Álava, and for centuries it carried one of the main routes between the Castilian plateau and the Basque coast. Pilgrims on the inland Camino de Santiago, merchants, armies and kings all passed through it, and a small chapel was built inside the cave. The old paved road leading up to it survives in sections, worn smooth by centuries of hooves and boots.
Read the complete Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian, about halfway. Next is Ekain.
In 1969 two young men exploring a hillside above the Sastarrain valley near Zestoa crawled into a narrow opening and found themselves in a gallery of painted horses. Ekain is one of the finest Palaeolithic painted caves in Europe, its walls covered with images of horses, bison and other animals made some fourteen thousand years ago with remarkable skill. The horses in particular are famous, drawn with shaggy manes and round bellies, so lively that they seem about to move.
Read the complete Ekain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ekain sits at 170 km, about halfway. Next is back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian comes up 212 km in. Next is back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
254 km in you reach back through 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.
The route ends here after 446 km.
San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries → Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 40 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 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → Ekain is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ekain → back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chaussée et Tunnel de San Adrian → back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cathedrale de Vitoria-Gasteiz → back through Pont de Briñas sur le Fleuve Ebro is 44 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 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.