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.
398 km from Bellinzona to Montreux, about 5 h 54 of riding. On the way it passes Lugano, Andermatt, Furka Pass and Tasch for Zermatt. The highest point is about 2,650 m. Furka Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 31 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
21 km on Furka Pass.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
155 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.
Bellinzona is the town that guarded the Alps. It lies on a flat piece of the Ticino valley where the routes from the Gotthard, San Bernardino and Lukmanier passes come together, and whoever held it controlled the way between northern Europe and Italy. Three castles, Castelgrande, Montebello and Sasso Corbaro, stand on rocky hills over the old town, linked by walls, and they form a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Milanese Visconti and Sforza dukes strengthened them in the fifteenth century, before the Swiss cantons took control, and Bellinzona stayed with them ever since. The oldest, Castelgrande, rises from a rocky outcrop right in the middle of town, and you can wander its courtyards and ramparts.
Read the complete Bellinzona write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bellinzona is where the day begins. Next is Lugano.
Lugano belongs to Switzerland by history and to Italy by temperament. It sits on the northern shore of a lake of the same name, in the canton of Ticino, with mountains, Monte San Salvatore and Monte Brè, rising straight from the water on either side. Italian is the language, the coffee is Italian, and the pace of life slows by a visible notch compared with Zurich. Ticino joined the Swiss Confederation only at the start of the nineteenth century, after centuries as subject territory of the Swiss cantons, and the town still has the atmosphere of a place with its own story.
Read the complete Lugano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lugano comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Andermatt.
Andermatt sits at 1,444 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, wide, treeless hollow in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and it has been a crossroads for centuries. Three great passes meet here: the Gotthard, which runs south to Italy and Ticino at 2,106 metres, the Furka, which climbs west over 2,429 metres toward the Valais, and the Oberalp, which leads east at 2,044 metres into Graubünden. For a motorcyclist it is a kind of Mecca, since the three roads are among the most famous in the Alps, and the town fills with bikes on any fine summer weekend.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 141 km into the recorded legs you reach Andermatt. Next is Furka Pass.
Furka is one of the Alps' great stage roads: 2,429 metres of switchbacks linking Uri and Valais, with the Rhône Glacier at the western foot. From Andermatt the road climbs through the high Urseren valley, past Realp, up a series of hairpins to a pass where the air is thin and cold, and the views unfold across rock, snow and sky. The mountains here are bare and grand, and the sense of altitude is real.
Read the complete Furka Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Furka Pass, about halfway at 2429 m. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Tasch for Zermatt, mostly downhill.
Täsch is a place most people pass through on the way to somewhere more famous, and it has made peace with that. Zermatt, a few kilometres up the valley, is closed to private cars, so the road ends here, at a large terminal beside the railway, where visitors leave their vehicles and ride the shuttle train for around twelve minutes to the village under the Matterhorn. For a motorcyclist the arrangement is simple. Park at the terminal, change out of the leathers, and take the train in.
Read the complete Tasch for Zermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tasch for Zermatt sits at 437 km, late in the day. Next is Montreux.
Montreux is the Swiss Riviera in its most polished form, a ribbon of hotels, gardens and promenades stacked up the steep north shore of Lake Geneva, with the French Alps standing on the far side of the water like a stage set. The slopes behind are so sheltered that palms and magnolias survive outdoors, and the lakeside walk is lined with flowerbeds from early spring. It was a retreat for Victorian invalids and then for writers: Byron wrote about the nearby Château de Chillon, and Nabokov spent his last years in a suite at the Montreux Palace hotel, where his statue stands in the gardens today.
Read the complete Montreux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 398 km.
Bellinzona → Lugano is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lugano → Andermatt is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Andermatt → Furka Pass is 21 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Furka Pass → Tasch for Zermatt is 97 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Tasch for Zermatt → Montreux is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.