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.
218 km from Pola de Lena to Pola de Lena, about 3 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Cámara Santa de Oviedo, La Peña de Candamo, Chemin Primitif and back through La Peña de Candamo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
On a grassy knoll above the Lena valley, south of Oviedo, stands a tiny stone church that has watched over the main road between Asturias and Castile for more than a thousand years. Santa Cristina de Lena is one of the jewels of Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture, built in the ninth century when the little Christian kingdom of Asturias was the only part of Iberia outside Muslim rule. Its unusual plan, with a raised presbytery behind an arcade of carved arches, and its finely worked stone screens are unique. Together with Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo in Oviedo, it is part of a World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Santa Cristina de Lena write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Santa Cristina de Lena is where the day begins. Next is Cámara Santa de Oviedo.
Oviedo is a surprise, a small, green, rainy capital with an almost Alpine smell of woodsmoke and a history that begins with a king. In the early ninth century Alfonso II, called the Chaste, moved his court here and began building churches in a style now called Asturian pre-Romanesque, which is unlike anything else in Spain, with tall narrow proportions, round arches and decorated stone. The Cámara Santa is a chapel inside the cathedral of San Salvador, built to protect relics and treasures, and it still holds the Cross of the Angels, dated to 808, and the Cross of Victory, which belonged to the later king Alfonso III and became the emblem of Asturias. UNESCO included the city's early monuments in its list in 1985.
Read the complete Cámara Santa de Oviedo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cámara Santa de Oviedo comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Peña de Candamo.
In the hills above the Nalón valley in Asturias, a cave hides one of the great collections of Paleolithic art in Spain. The Cueva de la Peña de Candamo, near San Román de Candamo, was discovered in 1914 and contains paintings and engravings of horses, bison, deer, goats and other animals, made during the Upper Paleolithic, and a remarkable wall of engraved figures. It is part of the UNESCO listing of cave art in northern Spain, and unlike some other caves, it can be visited, though only in limited numbers and for part of the year, so book ahead.
Read the complete La Peña de Candamo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach La Peña de Candamo. Next is Chemin Primitif.
Tineo stands on a hillside above the green valleys of western Asturias, and it is one of the main stops on the Camino Primitivo, the original Way of St James. According to tradition, it was King Alfonso II of Asturias who first walked from Oviedo to Santiago in the ninth century to see the tomb, newly found, of the apostle, and the route he took became the Primitivo. It is the hardest of the Caminos, crossing mountain after mountain, and the pilgrims you meet here, wet, muddy and cheerful, are a special breed.
Read the complete Chemin Primitif write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chemin Primitif, about halfway. Next is back through La Peña de Candamo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Peña de Candamo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Peña de Candamo sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cámara Santa de Oviedo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cámara Santa de Oviedo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cámara Santa de Oviedo comes up about 182 km into the recorded legs. Next is Santa Cristina de Lena.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Santa Cristina de Lena write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Santa Cristina de Lena closes the day.
Santa Cristina de Lena → Cámara Santa de Oviedo is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cámara Santa de Oviedo → La Peña de Candamo is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Peña de Candamo → Chemin Primitif is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chemin Primitif → back through La Peña de Candamo is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Peña de Candamo → back through Cámara Santa de Oviedo is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cámara Santa de Oviedo → Santa Cristina de Lena is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.