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 425 km round trip from Mérida - roughly 5 h 42 in the saddle. On the way it passes Old Town of Cáceres, Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup and back through Old Town of Cáceres. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 83 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Mérida was founded in 25 BC as Augusta Emerita, a city for veterans of the Cantabrian Wars, and it grew into the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania. Few places in Spain carry their Roman past so openly. The circus lies on the eastern side of town, a long, flat oval of grass more than four hundred metres from end to end, with the low remains of the central barrier and the seating banks around it. It once held tens of thousands of spectators for chariot races, and though the stands are mostly gone, you can still walk the track and picture the teams thundering around the turning posts.
Read the complete The Roman Circus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Roman Circus is where the day begins. Next is Old Town of Cáceres.
Cáceres has an old town so complete that film crews treat it as a ready-made set, and walking its streets at dusk, when the stone glows amber and the crowds have gone, you can see why. Inside the walls, built largely by the Almohads in the twelfth century, are dozens of fortified mansions, towers, churches and palaces, many built by noble families who made their fortunes in the conquest of the Americas. The towers once had battlements, but Queen Isabella ordered most of them cut down to curb the nobles' power. UNESCO listed the old town in 1986.
Read the complete Old Town of Cáceres write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Cáceres comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup.
about 212 km into the recorded legs you reach Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup. Next is back through Old Town of Cáceres.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Town of Cáceres write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Town of Cáceres, late in the day. Next is The Roman Circus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Roman Circus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Roman Circus. That is the ride.
The Roman Circus → Old Town of Cáceres is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Town of Cáceres → Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup → back through Old Town of Cáceres is 138 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Old Town of Cáceres → The Roman Circus is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.