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 292 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 4 h 48 in the saddle. On the way it passes Terioki, The Park «Nearest Dubki», The Water-bringing system of Peterhof and back through The Park «Nearest Dubki». It keeps close to the shore for long stretches.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 24 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
For about 36 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Shanetz sounds like a word for a small redoubt, and that is roughly what these coastal forts were: low, squat batteries put on islets and spits to cover the fairways into the Gulf of Finland. This one lies in the western approaches of Kotlin, on the shoals north of the island, and it belongs to the great ring of defences that earned Kronstadt its nickname as the key to Petersburg. The forts earned their keep during the Crimean War, when Allied ships came up the Baltic, took a look at the defences and decided not to risk an attack.
Read the complete The Coastal fort “Shanetz” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz” is where the day begins. Next is Terioki.
Terioki, or Terijoki in Finnish, is the old name of Zelenogorsk, a resort town on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, about fifty kilometres from St Petersburg. Until the Winter War, it was part of Finland, and before the revolution it was one of the favourite dacha destinations for the wealthy of the imperial capital, who came by train to spend summers among the pine trees and sandy beaches. After the Soviet Union took the Karelian Isthmus in 1940 and again in 1944, the Finnish population left, and in 1948 the town was renamed Zelenogorsk, the green hill.
Read the complete Terioki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terioki comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Park «Nearest Dubki».
Dubki simply means little oaks, a common name for a patch of woodland, and the ride titles connect this spot with the Oranienbaum Springboard, which is the south shore, across the water, where a Soviet bridgehead held out through the siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944 while the city itself was encircled.
Read the complete The Park «Nearest Dubki» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach The Park «Nearest Dubki». Next is The Water-bringing system of Peterhof.
The fountains of Peterhof run without a single pump, and that is the cleverest thing about them. When Peter the Great planned his gardens in the 1710s and 1720s, engineers led by Vasily Tuvolkov worked out that the water of the Ropsha hills, about twenty kilometres to the south, stood high enough above the Gulf of Finland to feed the fountains by gravity alone. They dug canals, built ponds and laid pipes, so that the water flows from the heights to the Upper Garden and down to the Great Cascade, where it shoots high into the air. The system, still essentially the same, is part of the UNESCO listing for Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof, about halfway. Next is back through The Park «Nearest Dubki».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Park «Nearest Dubki» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Park «Nearest Dubki» sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terioki.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terioki write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terioki comes up about 244 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Coastal fort “Shanetz”.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Coastal fort “Shanetz” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz” closes the day.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz” → Terioki is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terioki → The Park «Nearest Dubki» is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Park «Nearest Dubki» → The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof → back through The Park «Nearest Dubki» is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Park «Nearest Dubki» → back through Terioki is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terioki → The Coastal fort “Shanetz” is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.