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.
321 km from Turda to Turda, about 8 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici, Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea and back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 78 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Turda sits on salt. Under the town, the Salina Turda, an old salt mine, has been converted into an extraordinary underground amusement park, with a Ferris wheel, a lake with rowing boats and a mini-golf course more than a hundred metres below the surface, inside vast chambers carved out over centuries. Above ground, on the hill called Dealul Cetății, the Romans built the camp of the Fifth Macedonian Legion, which moved here in the late second century to guard the heart of the province of Dacia. The legionary fortress of Potaissa, with its walls, gates and headquarters building, has been excavated, and it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of the Dacian frontier.
Read the complete Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății is where the day begins. Next is Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici.
There is a hill above Ighiu called Măgulici, and from its slopes you look straight across the Mureș valley toward Alba Iulia, the old Roman Apulum. That view is the whole point. Apulum was the base of the Thirteenth Legion and the largest Roman centre in Dacia, and the hills around it were dotted with watch posts and small sites that kept an eye on the roads in and out. The frontier lists name a site on Dealul Măgulici, and while there is little to see on the ground beyond the lie of the land, standing there makes the Roman geography readable.
Read the complete Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
High above the Sebeș and Cugir valleys, where the Șureanu foothills fold into long grassy shoulders, the Romans kept watch over the southern approaches to their province of Dacia. The name on the map, Muncelu-Lăutaorea, belongs to the ridge country above Pianu de Jos, and it is one of the many small frontier points that archaeologists have tied to the Roman defensive system here. Do not expect walls to lean on. What survives on these hilltops is usually a faint platform, a ditch you notice only when the light is low, and a view that explains everything about why a sentry was posted there.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 153 km into the recorded legs you reach Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. Next is back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici, late in the day. Next is Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății. That is the ride.
Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății → Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici → Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.