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.
199 km one way from Chur - plan on about 3 h 30 of riding. On the way it passes Andermatt and Disentis. The climbs: Lukmanier pass road and Oberalppass high road. It tops out at 2,044 m. Lukmanier Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. The passes are the reason to go.
A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not. The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 152 km. 1322 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 1915 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.
The valley floor is behind you and the road starts working for its height at about 7.5%. Corners stack above one another where the ground allows nothing straighter. First and second gear more often than not. Look through each corner to the next one and let the engine do the holding.
This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else. 35 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it.
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.
Chur is where the day begins. Next is Lukmanier pass road, climbing 1322 m.
The Lukmanier Pass is the gentlest of the great crossings between the Rhine valley and Ticino, and at 1,915 metres it is also one of the lowest, which explains why it has been used for so long. Its lack of steepness made it a trade and pilgrim route well before the Gotthard became passable, and the monastery of Disentis on the north side owed much of its influence to the traffic.
Read the complete Lukmanier pass road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 1915 m here. The road climbs 1322 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 9 °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 Andermatt, mostly downhill.
Andermatt sits in a high, flat valley called the Urseren, at 1,444 metres, where four of the great Swiss passes meet. The Gotthard heads south to Ticino, the Oberalp runs east toward Graubünden, the Furka climbs west to the Valais, and the road north follows the Reuss down through a gorge to Lake Lucerne. People have crossed here for at least eight hundred years, ever since the Devil's Bridge was thrown across the gorge to make the Gotthard route practical, and the village has served travellers and soldiers ever since.
Read the complete Andermatt base reset write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. You lose 471 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 6 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Oberalppass high road, climbing 600 m.
The Oberalp is the pass that links Andermatt in the Urseren valley with Disentis in the Surselva, and at 2,044 metres it is the road's high point and a historic watershed. Just above the summit, the little Lake Toma is regarded as the source of the Rhine, the river that eventually runs through Germany and the Netherlands and into the North Sea. A short walk up from the car park gets you to the lakeshore, where a plaque marks the spot.
Read the complete Oberalppass high road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section, 2044 m up. The road climbs 600 m on the way up to it, steadily. Nothing on this route is higher. At this height the road is a summer one: snow gates can stay shut into June and shut again in October. Next is Disentis food stop, mostly downhill.
Disentis is the monastery town of the upper Rhine valley, and the Benedictine abbey that dominates it is one of the oldest in Switzerland, founded, according to tradition, around the year 700 by a wandering monk called Sigisbert with help from a local landowner. The current buildings are mostly baroque, with a huge church and an extensive cloister, and the monks still teach at the school attached to it. The village sits at 1,130 metres where the Medelser Rhine meets the Vorderrhein, and it has the compact feel of a place that was important long before the tourist trade arrived.
Read the complete Disentis food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Food at 249 km, roughly 5 hours into the riding. You lose 914 m on the way down to it, steadily. Reckon on about 3 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Vorderrhein valley flow, mostly downhill.
Ilanz calls itself the first town on the Rhine, and in a river that runs a thousand kilometres to the North Sea that is a neat claim to hold. It sits in the Surselva at 650 metres, a small, practical place of about two thousand people, where the Vorderrhein valley widens and the Lugnez valley comes in from the south. Fuel, bakeries and a supermarket are all here. Laax, the ski resort village, is a few kilometres up the slope, and Flims lies beyond it.
Read the complete Vorderrhein valley flow write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 199 km. You lose 480 m on the way down to it, steadily.
Chur fuel gate → Lukmanier pass road climbs about 1322 m in 81 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Lukmanier pass road → Andermatt base reset drops about 471 m over 56 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Andermatt base reset → Oberalppass high road climbs about 600 m in 11 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Oberalppass high road → Disentis food stop drops about 914 m over 21 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Disentis food stop → Vorderrhein valley flow drops about 480 m over 30 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.