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 487 km round trip from Alausí - roughly 10 h 11 in the saddle. The stops in between: Segment Cerro de Cojitambo, Segment San Antonio - San Antonio and back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 100 km this is Avenue of the Volcanoes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
High in the Andes of Chimborazo province, south of Alausí, a narrow path of fitted stone winds across the páramo, the cold grassland that covers the Ecuadorian highlands above about 3,500 metres. It is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system, and this stretch belongs to the route that links the Inca site of Ingapirca with the highlands to the north. Before the Spanish arrived, the Inca built paved paths, stairways and waystations across this country, and parts of them are still in use, walked by herders and, in recent decades, by trekkers following the well-known route from Achupallas to Ingapirca.
Read the complete Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico is where the day begins. Next is Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Cojitambo is a rocky hill that rises abruptly above the valley of Azogues, in the province of Cañar, in the southern Andes of Ecuador. Its summit and slopes hold the remains of a Cañari and Inca settlement, with walls, terraces and stairways, and the Inca road ran past it, a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan listed by UNESCO. The Cañari were the people of this region before the Inca conquest, and they resisted fiercely, later siding with the Spanish against their Inca overlords. Today the hill is also a popular spot for rock climbing, with routes on its cliffs.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Cerro de Cojitambo comes up about 139 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment San Antonio - San Antonio.
What I can say is that the point lies on the steep western slope of the Andes, in the country between the highlands near Cuenca and the coastal plain, with Naranjal the nearest real town, thirty-odd kilometres off on the lowlands.
Read the complete Segment San Antonio - San Antonio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 239 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment San Antonio - San Antonio. Next is back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo, late in the day. Next is Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico. That is the ride.
Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico → Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → Segment San Antonio - San Antonio is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio → back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.