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.
An 89 km round trip from Sosnovaya Polyana - roughly 1 h 24 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kievskoe Highway, Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina and back through Kievskoe Highway. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Not every historic road is a pretty one, and the Tallinn highway on the south-western edge of St Petersburg is not trying to win prizes for charm. It is, however, one of the old imperial routes out of the capital, the road toward Narva and Reval, today's Tallinn, and as such it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the historic centre of St Petersburg and its related monuments, which includes the network of roads tying the city to its palaces and estates. Along it, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries planted suburban residences, military camps and post stations.
Read the complete Tallinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tallinskoe Highway is where the day begins. Next is Kievskoe Highway.
South of Saint Petersburg, the flat, damp plain of Ingria runs off towards Pskov and the old western frontier, and the Kievskoe Highway is the road that heads that way, the route to Kyiv that gave it its name.
Read the complete Kievskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kievskoe Highway comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina.
Gatchina is the kind of town you reach by flat, straight Ingrian roads, and the first impression is of birch, pine and wide skies rather than anything dramatic. Forty-odd kilometres south-west of St Petersburg, it sits on land that was once swampy and sparsely settled, until the eighteenth century decided otherwise. Catherine the Great gave the estate to her favourite Grigory Orlov, and the architect Antonio Rinaldi built him a severe, castle-like palace of local limestone beside a lake. After Orlov died it passed to her son Paul, who made it his private kingdom, drilled his soldiers on the parade ground and added the odd fortress-style touches that suited his nature.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina. Next is back through Kievskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kievskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kievskoe Highway, late in the day. Next is Tallinskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tallinskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tallinskoe Highway. That is the ride.
Tallinskoe Highway → Kievskoe Highway is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kievskoe Highway → Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Centre of the Town of Gatchina → back through Kievskoe Highway is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kievskoe Highway → Tallinskoe Highway is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.