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 80 km round trip from Lomonosov - roughly 1 h 47 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Water-bringing system of Peterhof, Izhorsky Bench and back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 19 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Oranienbaum is the old name of Lomonosov, and the story of the town begins with a man who liked to build on a grand scale. Alexander Menshikov, one of Peter the Great's closest friends, laid out a palace here on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland in the early eighteenth century, and the place became a favourite residence of the imperial family. Today its park and palaces are part of the Saint Petersburg ensemble that UNESCO listed in 1990.
Read the complete The Zubov's Estate «Otrada» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Zubov's Estate «Otrada» is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izhorsky Bench.
South of St Petersburg, the flat marshy plain of the Neva lowland suddenly steps up onto a limestone plateau. Geologists call the edge a glint or bench, and here, near Russko-Vysotskoye and Kipen, it forms a low but noticeable escarpment, the northern edge of the Izhora plateau. It is one of the natural features included in the wide UNESCO listing of St Petersburg and its surroundings, which recognises not only palaces and canals but the landscape the city was built against.
Read the complete Izhorsky Bench write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Izhorsky Bench. Next is back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof, late in the day. Next is The Zubov's Estate «Otrada».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Zubov's Estate «Otrada» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Zubov's Estate «Otrada». That is the ride.
The Zubov's Estate «Otrada» → The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof → Izhorsky Bench is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izhorsky Bench → back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof → The Zubov's Estate «Otrada» is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.