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 346 km round trip from Gorelovo - roughly 5 h 04 in the saddle. It goes by way of The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», The Road of Life and back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates». 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 67 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Volkhonskoe Highway is not a scenic mountain road but a historic route on the southern edge of Saint Petersburg, running out from the city towards Gorelovo and the old road to Krasnoye Selo. It belongs to the network of eighteenth and nineteenth century highways that linked the capital with the imperial residences and military camps to the south and west, and it is included in the wider protected area of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its related monuments. What you see today is a mix of suburban growth, open fields and stretches of tree-lined road, with the ghosts of history underneath.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Volkhonskoe Highway is where the day begins. Next is The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», 76 km on.
In 1903 the painter Ilya Repin, the most famous Russian artist of his day, moved to a wooden house in the village of Kuokkala on the Gulf of Finland, which he named the Penates, after the Roman household gods. He lived and worked there until his death in 1930, and after Finnish independence in 1917, he found himself living abroad, refusing invitations to return to the Soviet Union. The house, with its glass-roofed studio and eccentric architecture, was destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt afterwards, and it is now a museum with many of his paintings and possessions.
Read the complete The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Road of Life.
On the south-eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, east of Saint Petersburg, a road ends at the water. This is the start of the Road of Life, the supply route across the ice that kept Leningrad alive during the siege of 1941 to 1944. The siege lasted 872 days, from September 1941 to January 1944, and it cut the city off from nearly everything except the lake. In the first winter, when Ladoga froze, trucks and horse-drawn sledges began to cross the ice with food and fuel, and on the return journey they carried out women, children and the sick. Lorries broke through the ice, and bombing and artillery attacked the route, but it kept going.
Read the complete The Road of Life write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 190 km into the recorded legs you reach The Road of Life. Next is back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», 76 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates», late in the day. Next is Volkhonskoe Highway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Volkhonskoe Highway. That is the ride.
Volkhonskoe Highway → The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» → The Road of Life is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Road of Life → back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The I.Repin Estate «The Penates» → Volkhonskoe Highway is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.