Why this ride
422 km from Peterhof to Peterhof, about 6 h 42 of riding. The stops in between: The Park «Dubki», Lindulovskaya Roshcha, The Blocade Ring and back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha. The line favours views over speed.
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.
422 km from Peterhof to Peterhof, about 6 h 42 of riding. The stops in between: The Park «Dubki», Lindulovskaya Roshcha, The Blocade Ring and back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 52 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Peterhof is the work of a tsar who wanted his own Versailles on the Gulf of Finland. Peter the Great began the palace and its gardens in the early eighteenth century, and by the time of his daughter Elizabeth and later of Catherine the Great, the Great Cascade, with its gilded statues and its fountains, was one of the most extravagant waterworks in Europe. Behind the formal gardens, the Lugovoy, meaning the meadow park, is a larger, quieter landscape of open lawns, ponds, tree-lined paths and old oaks, a place where Petersburgers come to walk dogs and push prams on weekends.
Read the complete The Lugovoy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Lugovoy is where the day begins. Next is The Park «Dubki».
Peter the Great loved oak, because oak meant ships, and the little park of Dubki, whose name means little oaks, is said to date back to the trees he ordered planted near his arms-making settlement at Sestroretsk. Whatever the truth of the exact planting, the park is a pleasant tract of old trees on sandy soil, with paths, ponds and the slow rhythm of a town that has long been a seaside resort. Sestroretsk, on the Gulf of Finland, became a fashionable spa at the end of the nineteenth century, and its shore of shallow water and fine sand still draws crowds in summer.
Read the complete The Park «Dubki» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Park «Dubki» comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lindulovskaya Roshcha.
Out on the Karelian Isthmus, in a landscape of pine, birch and sandy soil, stands a grove of larches that looks entirely out of place. The Lindulovskaya Grove was planted in 1738 by an admiral, Fyodor Soimonov, who wanted to grow shipbuilding timber for the Russian navy, and he chose Siberian larch, a durable and rot-resistant wood. Some of the trees are nearly three centuries old and very tall, and the grove is protected as a natural monument, the oldest planted larch forest in Russia. Walking among the trunks, with their orange-grey bark, and the soft light filtering through the needles, is surprisingly moving.
Read the complete Lindulovskaya Roshcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Lindulovskaya Roshcha. Next is The Blocade Ring.
The Blockade Ring stands on the south bank of the Neva, east of Saint Petersburg, close to where the Road of Life began its journey toward Lake Ladoga. It commemorates the siege of Leningrad, which lasted from September 1941 to January 1944, roughly 872 days, and the corridor that kept the city alive. When Shlisselburg fell in September 1941, the city was cut off by land, and the only lifeline ran across Ladoga, by boat in summer and over the ice in winter.
Read the complete The Blocade Ring write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Blocade Ring, about halfway. Next is back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lindulovskaya Roshcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha sits at 250 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Park «Dubki».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Park «Dubki» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Park «Dubki» comes up about 370 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Lugovoy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Lugovoy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Lugovoy closes the day.
The Lugovoy → The Park «Dubki» is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Park «Dubki» → Lindulovskaya Roshcha is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lindulovskaya Roshcha → The Blocade Ring is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Blocade Ring → back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Lindulovskaya Roshcha → back through The Park «Dubki» is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Park «Dubki» → The Lugovoy is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.