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.
World-class passes, but only with a night away. 577 km round from Chur - plan on about 9 h 56 of riding. The climbs: Ofenpass approach, Pordoi Pass, Campolongo Pass and Gardena Pass. It tops out at 2,239 m. 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 197 km instead of surrendering it to the next valley. Exposed ground: wind matters more here than gradient. Nothing blocks it.
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. 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.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
285 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it — this is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
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.
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. Reckon on about 10 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. 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. Reckon on about 11 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. 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. Reckon on about 8 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. 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 about 323 km into the recorded legs. You lose 576 m on the way down to it, steeply. Reckon on about 6 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. 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, steeply.
Use Chur eastbound gate → Ofenpass approach as clean positioning. Keep it tidy, ignore impatient traffic and save the enthusiasm for the good road ahead. The value here is not drama; it is arriving at the riding section with space, fuel and concentration intact.
This Ofenpass approach → Pordoi Pass stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
This Pordoi Pass → Campolongo Pass stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
This Campolongo Pass → Gardena Pass stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.