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 87 km one-way ride from near Chino, about 1 h 35 of riding. On the way it passes Kurumayama and Kirigamine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 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 23 km this is Venus Line, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chino is a town of fifty-six thousand people on the eastern side of Lake Suwa's basin, in Nagano Prefecture, and it has two secrets. One is that the town gave Japan one of its most famous prehistoric treasures: the Jomon Venus, a small, rounded clay figure found at the Tanabatake site and designated a national treasure, which is perhaps five thousand years old. The other is agar, or kanten, a seaweed jelly made in the cold dry winters here, with long frames of it set out to freeze and dry in the open air. Neither is on the usual tourist list, which is part of the appeal.
Read the complete Chino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chino is where the day begins. Next is Kurumayama.
Kurumayama is a smooth, grassy mountain on the Kirigamine plateau in central Nagano, at nearly two thousand metres, and it stands above one of the loveliest high-altitude roads in Japan. The plateau is a broad volcanic upland, a pale green tilted table of grass and wildflowers lifted high above the lakes and valleys, and the road that crosses it, known as the Venus Line, was built to show it off. On a clear day the view from the top is huge: the Northern Alps to the west, the Yatsugatake range to the south, and, if you are lucky, the distant cone of Mount Fuji.
Read the complete Kurumayama write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kurumayama comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kirigamine.
Kirigamine is a highland plateau in central Nagano, and the Venus Line passes across it like a ribbon laid over a green blanket. The name means the peak of mist, and in the summer months, when warm air from the valleys meets the cool air above, the fog moves across the grass in slow rolling banks. The plateau is a volcanic shelf at roughly fifteen to nineteen hundred metres, with gentle slopes, a few small peaks and wide open spaces where cattle graze. It is a gentle contrast to the sharp Alps that rise on the horizon.
Read the complete Kirigamine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 30 km into the recorded legs you reach Kirigamine. Next is Utsukushigahara.
Utsukushigahara is a high plateau in the Japanese Alps, at about two thousand metres, and the Venus Line is the road that carries riders up to it. The name means Beautiful Highland, and the open grassland on top is used as summer pasture, with cattle grazing among the wildflowers. Matsumoto, about thirteen kilometres away, is the large city below, with a famous black castle and plenty of fuel and food. Up on the plateau there is little more than a couple of rest houses, an open-air museum of sculptures and a few car parks, so supplies belong in your tank before you climb.
Read the complete Utsukushigahara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Utsukushigahara closes the day.
Chino → Kurumayama is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kurumayama → Kirigamine is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kirigamine → Utsukushigahara is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.