Why this ride
A 39 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 49 min in the saddle. It goes by way of The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» and back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka». The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The Barrier of Cribwork and Kronstadtsky
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 39 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 49 min
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 16 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 20 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Barrier of Cribwork
Kronstadt is a naval town on an island, and nothing about it feels like anywhere else in Russia. Kotlin lies about thirty kilometres west of the centre of St Petersburg, a long thin island of some twelve kilometres, and when Peter's engineers decided to close the sea approaches in the early eighteenth century they did it with timber. The barrier of cribwork was a line of log cribs filled with stone, sunk across the shallow channels so that enemy ships could only pass under the guns, and this label points to that engineering memory rather than to anything you can ride up to and touch. The cribs rotted or were buried long ago, and the sea lanes are now marked by fort islands and the modern dam.
Read the complete The Barrier of Cribwork write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Barrier of Cribwork is where the day begins. Next is The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka».
2. The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka»
Peterhof is the tsars' answer to Versailles, strung along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland about thirty kilometres west of St Petersburg, and Sergievka belongs to its quieter western fringe. Think of it less as one famous building than as a country estate in the old Peterhof manner, with a house, an overgrown park, ponds and lawns, laid out when noble families built summer retreats close to the court.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kronstadtsky.
3. back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka»
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka», late in the day. Next is The Barrier of Cribwork.
4. The Barrier of Cribwork
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Barrier of Cribwork write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at The Barrier of Cribwork. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
The Barrier of Cribwork to The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka»
The Barrier of Cribwork → The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» to back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka»
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» → back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» is 1 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» to The Barrier of Cribwork
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sergievka» → The Barrier of Cribwork is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.