CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Chur it runs 889 km to Glarus; allow about 14 h 20 of riding. The climbs: Ofenpass approach, Pordoi Pass, Campolongo Pass and Gardena Pass. It tops out at about 2,250 m. Klausen Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The passes are the reason to go.
Height already gained and held. The road stays near 2239 m for 216 km instead of surrendering it to the next valley — exposed ground: wind matters more here than gradient. Nothing blocks it.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 2136 m, and what surrounds it is rock, weather and distance. Cold comes early up here and stays late. Ride it with something in reserve: the summit is not the end of the work, only the middle of it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else. 313 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it.
For 46 km this is Klausen Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
50 km on Pragel and Ibergeregg Loop.
Chur likes to call itself the oldest town in Switzerland, and the claim holds up better than most: people have lived on this spot, where the Plessur meets the Rhine, for several thousand years. It became the seat of a bishop in late Roman times, and the cathedral on the hill still keeps that tradition alive. Today the city has around thirty thousand residents and sits at 593 metres, the gateway to Graubünden, with fuel, supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants everywhere a rider could want. As a start point it is practical and charming at once.
Read the complete Chur eastbound gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chur eastbound is where the day begins. Next is Ofenpass approach, climbing 1556 m.
The Ofenpass, which the Romansh call Pass dal Fuorn, climbs through the only national park in Switzerland. The park was founded in 1914 and the road is the single way to see it by bike, so the rules matter: stay on the road, stop only where parking is allowed, and leave the ibex, red deer and marmots to their own devices.
Read the complete Ofenpass approach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 2149 m here. The road climbs 1556 m on the way up to it, steadily. At this height the road is a summer one: snow gates can stay shut into June and shut again in October. Next is Pordoi Pass.
Pordoi is the high point of the Sella Ronda, a pass of 2,239 metres between the Fassa valley and Arabba, and for many people the one with the best view in the Dolomites. The road climbs from Canazei in about thirty hairpins to the saddle, where a big car park, a few restaurants and the cable car to Sass Pordoi cluster beneath the pale cliffs of the Sella massif. On a clear day, the rock turns pink and gold at dusk, the effect known locally as the enrosadira.
Read the complete Pordoi Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
2239 m, and the road stops climbing. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Campolongo Pass, mostly downhill.
Campolongo is the quiet pass in a family of loud ones. At 1,875 metres it links Corvara in Alta Badia with Arabba and the upper valley of Livinallongo, and on the Sella Ronda it is the stretch that most riders ride without thinking, between the more famous climbs of Pordoi and Gardena. That undersells it. The road winds up through pasture and scattered spruce from Corvara with a long, relaxed run of hairpins, and from the top the whole of the Sella massif stands over you, a pale, castellated block of limestone that looks as if it was built rather than eroded.
Read the complete Campolongo Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section, 1875 m up. You lose 364 m on the way down to it, steadily. High enough to hold ice in the shaded corners early and late in the year. Next is Gardena Pass, climbing 261 m.
Gardena Pass joins two Ladin valleys: Val Gardena on the north side, with Selva and Ortisei, and Alta Badia on the south, around Corvara. At roughly 2,100 metres it is one of the four passes that circle the Sella massif, and the road runs between the great rock walls of the Sassolungo and the Sella, with their pale dolomite faces that glow pink at sunset.
Read the complete Gardena Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gardena Pass tops the climb at 2136 m. The road climbs 261 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Val Gardena overnight base, mostly downhill.
Val Gardena is the valley where the Dolomites speak Ladin. The language, a Romance tongue descended from the Latin of Roman soldiers, survives here in a handful of valleys, and in villages like Selva, Santa Cristina and Ortisei you will see three sets of names on every sign: German, Italian and Ladin, so Selva is also Wolkenstein and Sëlva. The altitude of 1,560 metres puts you in Selva, at the top end of the valley, where the road to the Sella and Gardena passes begins and the walls of the Dolomites are close enough to touch.
Read the complete Val Gardena overnight base write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Val Gardena overnight base comes up 397 km in. You lose 576 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Back to Chur, mostly downhill.
At 593 metres, in a wide bend of the Rhine valley, Chur makes a strong claim to be the oldest town in Switzerland, with traces of settlement going back thousands of years and a Roman presence from the first century BC. It has been the seat of a bishop since late antiquity, and the bishop's court, with its cathedral, sits on a terrace above the old town. Down below, the narrow streets and squares of the Altstadt, with painted houses, fountains and arcades, are a pleasant place to wander after a morning in the saddle.
Read the complete Chur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Chur closes the day. You lose 967 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Glarus valley fuel, mostly downhill.
Glarus is a town that was burned down and rebuilt on a grid, and the grid is why the centre feels so unlike other Swiss towns. On 10 May 1861, a fire driven by the Föhn wind destroyed about a third of the town in a single night, and the rebuilding followed a plan of straight streets and regular blocks, an unusual layout for a mountain town. Today Glarus has just under six thousand people and serves as the capital of its small canton, in the narrow valley of the Linth, where steep limestone walls rise on both sides.
Read the complete Glarus valley fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You start here, at road level. Next is Klausenpass.
The Klausenpass is a road that you only really understand once you are on it. It runs for nearly fifty kilometres between Altdorf in Uri and Linthal in Glarus, crossing a ridge at 1,948 metres, and unlike many Alpine passes it feels like a real journey from one world to another, from the green terraces of the Schächental to the broad, high pastures of the Urnerboden and then down into the Linth valley.
Read the complete Klausenpass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section. Next is Altdorf lunch window.
Altdorf is where the legend of William Tell lives, and the town has the statue to prove it. In the main square, a bronze figure of the archer stands with his crossbow and his son, put up in the nineteenth century, and the whole place has a theatrical sense of being on a stage for a story that every Swiss child knows. Whether Tell existed or not, the tale of an apple, an arrow and a tyrant has become part of the way the country imagines itself.
Read the complete Altdorf lunch window write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Altdorf lunch window is where this day stops to eat. Next is Pragelpass high road.
The Pragel is one of the narrowest and least known of the central Swiss passes, and for those who like their riding small-scale and quiet, it has a charm of its own. It climbs out of the Muotatal at Muotathal and crosses a ridge at 1,550 metres before dropping toward the Klöntal and the town of Glarus. The road is mostly a single lane wide with passing places, and that fact shapes the whole experience: you ride slowly, with attention, and you wave to oncoming drivers who pull in for you.
Read the complete Pragelpass high road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pragelpass high road is the summit of this stretch. Next is Walensee view stop.
The Walensee is a long, deep, intensely green lake wedged between steep mountains, and a stop above it is one of the best views on the road between Zürich and Chur. On the northern side, the seven peaks of the Churfirsten rise like a jagged wall nearly two thousand metres above the water, their limestone faces catching the light in the late afternoon. Behind you, the slopes of the Flumserberg drop to the shore, and the lake lies between the two walls like a fjord, with the wind whipping up whitecaps on a stormy day.
Read the complete Walensee view stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Walensee view stop, late in the day. Next is back to Glarus valley fuel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Glarus valley fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back to Glarus valley fuel closes the day.
Chur eastbound gate → Ofenpass approach climbs about 1556 m in 109 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Ofenpass approach → Pordoi Pass is 204 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pordoi Pass → Campolongo Pass is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Campolongo Pass → Gardena Pass is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gardena Pass → Val Gardena overnight base drops about 576 m over 12 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Val Gardena overnight base → Back to Chur drops about 967 m over 296 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Back to Chur → Glarus valley fuel drops about 593 m over 72 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Glarus valley fuel → Klausenpass is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Klausenpass → Altdorf lunch window is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Altdorf lunch window → Pragelpass high road is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pragelpass high road → Walensee view stop is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Walensee view stop → back to Glarus valley fuel is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.