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 205 km round trip from Sainte-Mère-Église - roughly 3 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes Beaches of the D-Day Landings, Sword Beach and back through Beaches of the D-Day Landings. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Low dunes, a wide grey-gold beach and a sky that seems to go on forever: the westernmost of the D-Day landing beaches looks peaceful today. On 6 June 1944, troops of the US 4th Infantry Division came ashore here, on the eastern coast of the Cotentin peninsula, after paratroopers had dropped inland during the night. A current pushed the first landing craft south of their intended sector, onto a less defended stretch of sand, and Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., walking the beach with a cane, decided to start the war from right there. Casualties at Utah were far lower than at Omaha, a few kilometres to the east.
Read the complete Utah Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Utah Beach is where the day begins. Next is Beaches of the D-Day Landings.
Port-en-Bessin is a working fishing harbour squeezed into a gap in the cliffs, and on the morning of 6 June 1944 it sat exactly on the seam between Omaha Beach to the west and Gold Beach to the east. British commandos took the port in the days that followed, linking the American and British sectors. Today the trawlers still come in with scallops in season, the boats crowd the inner basin, and a stubby stone tower designed by Vauban's engineers watches over the entrance. It is a fine base for exploring the whole stretch of the Normandy landing beaches.
Read the complete Beaches of the D-Day Landings write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beaches of the D-Day Landings comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sword Beach.
On the morning of 6 June 1944 this long, flat stretch of sand between Ouistreham and Lion-sur-Mer was the easternmost of the five Allied landing beaches in Normandy. British troops of the 3rd Infantry Division came ashore here, supported by commandos, including a small unit of French commandos under Philippe Kieffer, who fought their way into Ouistreham. The beach linked up with the airborne forces who had taken the bridges over the Orne and the Caen canal during the night, among them the famous Pegasus Bridge at Bénouville, a few kilometres inland. Lord Lovat's commandos marched to relieve the paratroopers there, led, according to the well-known story, by piper Bill Millin playing on the beach under fire.
Read the complete Sword Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 105 km into the recorded legs you reach Sword Beach. Next is back through Beaches of the D-Day Landings.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beaches of the D-Day Landings write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beaches of the D-Day Landings, late in the day. Next is Utah Beach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Utah Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Utah Beach. That is the ride.
Utah Beach → Beaches of the D-Day Landings is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beaches of the D-Day Landings → Sword Beach is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sword Beach → back through Beaches of the D-Day Landings is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beaches of the D-Day Landings → Utah Beach is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.