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.
From Gorelovo it runs 165 km to Gorelovo; allow about 3 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Izhorsky Bench, The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya, Tolbukhin Lighthouse on Tolbukhin Island and back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya. It stays on the island.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 25 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
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 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.
Izhorsky Bench comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya.
Peterhof is the one everyone has seen in photographs, with the golden statue of Samson tearing open a lion's jaws and the long canal running down to the Gulf of Finland. The Sobstvennaya Dacha, the Tsar's Own Dacha, is a quieter corner of the same ensemble, tucked into the parkland on the southern shore of the gulf. The ground here is the Izhorsky bench, a limestone shelf running east to west with a sudden step down toward the water.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya. Next is Tolbukhin Lighthouse on Tolbukhin Island.
Ships have been guided by a light on Tolbukhin island for about three centuries, and it is one of those places that makes more sense on a chart than on a road. The island lies in the Gulf of Finland, south-west of Kronstadt and out in the shallow channel that leads to Saint Petersburg, and the lighthouse on it marks the southern passage into the Neva Bay. The surrounding waters are shallow, and in the grey light of autumn the sea and the sky merge into a single pale band.
Read the complete Tolbukhin Lighthouse on Tolbukhin Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tolbukhin Lighthouse on Tolbukhin Island, about halfway. Next is back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Izhorsky Bench.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izhorsky Bench write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Izhorsky Bench comes up about 140 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Volkhonskoe Highway closes the day.
Volkhonskoe Highway → Izhorsky Bench is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izhorsky Bench → The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya → Tolbukhin Lighthouse on Tolbukhin Island is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tolbukhin Lighthouse on Tolbukhin Island → back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble «Sobstvennaya → back through Izhorsky Bench is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izhorsky Bench → Volkhonskoe Highway is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.