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.
Out of Zermatt, one way: 243 km, roughly 3 h 12 in the saddle. On the way it passes Montreux and Lausanne. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 30 km this is Lavaux Vineyard Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Montreux comes up about 139 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lausanne.
Lausanne tips down a steep hillside to Lake Geneva, and you feel it in your legs, your brakes and your bike's low gears. The city sprawls over three hills and a lake front, with the old town at the top and the harbour district of Ouchy at the bottom, joined by one of the world's smallest metro systems. The Gothic cathedral looks out over the roofs and the water toward the French Alps across the lake.
Read the complete Lausanne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 169 km into the recorded legs you reach Lausanne. Next is Neuchatel.
Neuchâtel looks across its lake from a long, gentle shoreline, with the Jura mountains rising behind and, on a clear day, the Bernese Alps floating above the far side like a distant promise. The town takes its yellowish tint from the local limestone, a warm honey colour in evening light, and its centre is a tidy lattice of old lanes between the castle and the lakefront. The castle and the Collegiate church sit together on a small hill above the old town, and it was from here that the counts, and later the Prussian kings, ruled. Neuchâtel was under the Prussian crown from 1707 until a republican revolution in 1848, a curious detail that explains its odd, independent character.
Read the complete Neuchatel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Neuchatel closes the day.
Tasch for Zermatt → Montreux is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Montreux → Lausanne is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lausanne → Neuchatel is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.