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.
A 354 km round trip from Oviedo - roughly 4 h 47 in the saddle. It goes by way of 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. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 95 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
There is a point on the road up Monte Naranco where Oviedo suddenly appears below you, and it is nothing like what you imagined. Spread across a valley of green hills, the capital of Asturias looks more like a country town than a city of two hundred thousand, with the cathedral tower in the middle and the sea hidden somewhere beyond the ridge. The hillside is a ride of about three kilometres from the centre, steady and winding, and it leads to one of Spain's best-loved medieval buildings.
Read the complete Santa María del Naranco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Santa María del Naranco 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 177 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 Santa María del Naranco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Santa María del Naranco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Santa María del Naranco. That is the ride.
Santa María del Naranco → 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 95 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 → Santa María del Naranco is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.