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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 322 km loop that starts and ends near Bormio, about 6 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Santa Maria and Tirano. The climbs: Stelvio Pass, Gavia Pass, Stelvio Pass summit and Umbrail Pass. It tops out at about 2,750 m. Stelvio Pass and Gavia Pass are open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. It crosses from Italy into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The passes are the reason to go.
For 44 km this is Stelvio 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.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
2 km on Stelvio Pass.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 2757 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.
It is a small town with an old centre of stone houses, narrow streets and a clock tower, and it has been a spa town since Roman times, drawing on hot springs that still feed the baths.
Read the complete Bormio overnight base write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bormio overnight base is where the day begins. Next is Santa Maria fuel.
Santa Maria is the main village of the Val Mustair, a quiet Swiss valley that runs east from the Ofen Pass toward the Italian border, and the place where the road to the Umbrail Pass begins. It lies at roughly 1,400 metres, among meadows and pine forest, with a few traditional Romansh houses with deep window reveals and painted sgraffito decoration on their walls. The people here speak Romansh, a Latin-derived language that survives in only a few valleys of Switzerland.
Read the complete Santa Maria fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Santa Maria fuel is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Stelvio Pass.
Few roads in Europe have a reputation as large as the Stelvio, and for once it is deserved. At 2,757 metres, it is one of the highest paved passes in the Alps, and the road up from the Trafoi side is a staircase of forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked against the mountainside, while the Bormio side has about forty of its own, longer and more open. Engineers of the Austrian empire built it in the 1820s to link Lombardy with the Tyrol, under the direction of Carlo Donegani, and it was meant for horse-drawn carts, which explains why the bends are so tight.
Read the complete Stelvio Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Gavia Pass.
The Gavia is one of those passes that people talk about in lowered voices. At 2,621 metres it is among the highest paved roads in the Italian Alps, linking Bormio in the Valtellina with Ponte di Legno in the Val Camonica, and it crosses the rugged, rocky heart of the Stelvio National Park. The summit is bare and wild, with snow patches into July, two small lakes, the dark Lago Nero and the pale Lago Bianco, and a stone refuge, Rifugio Berni, with a restaurant and a view across the glaciers of the Ortler-Cevedale group.
Read the complete Gavia Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The high point of this section. Next is Tirano food.
Tirano sits at the foot of the Bernina route, near the Swiss border, and it is the one place in Italy where a train runs along the street. The red carriages of the Rhaetian Railway start here and climb over the Bernina Pass into Switzerland on a line that is listed by UNESCO, and the Bernina Express leaves from a station just a few steps from the town centre. Watching the little train rattle between parked cars on the main road is one of those charming oddities that make you smile.
Read the complete Tirano food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Food at 148 km, roughly 3 hours into the riding. Next is Back to Bormio.
Bormio lies in a high valley of Lombardy, a town of narrow lanes, stone arches and church bells at around 1,200 metres, with mountains rising steeply on every side. It has been a spa since Roman times, and the warm springs that bubble up from deep in the rock still feed thermal baths where you can soak after a long day. In winter it is a ski resort with a long tradition, and the famously steep Stelvio downhill run, used for World Cup races, starts above the town.
Read the complete Bormio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 322 km. Next is Bormio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bormio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bormio is where the day begins. Next is Stelvio Pass summit, climbing 1532 m.
The Stelvio at its summit is a strange mix of mountain and market. At 2,757 metres, it is the second highest paved pass in the Alps, and the car park is crowded with coaches, camper vans, motorbikes and stalls selling sausages, hats and souvenirs. Cold wind blows across the saddle even in July, so keep a jacket in your top box. Ahead the Ortler massif, the highest peak in the eastern Alps at 3,905 metres, rises over the glaciers, and on a clear day it is worth taking a moment to look at it before the stalls draw your attention.
Read the complete Stelvio Pass summit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
2757 m, and the road stops climbing. The road climbs 1532 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 Prato allo Stelvio, mostly downhill.
Prato allo Stelvio, or Prad am Stilfserjoch in German, is a village of around two and a half thousand people in the Val Venosta, in South Tyrol, at 915 metres above sea level. It is the doorstep of the Stelvio Pass from the eastern side, and the place where most riders who approach from the Vinschgau valley fill up, have a coffee and gather their courage. Almost everyone speaks German first and Italian second, and the village looks more Austrian than Italian, with painted house fronts and flower boxes.
Read the complete Prato allo Stelvio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Food at 297 km, roughly 6 hours into the riding. You lose 1842 m on the way down to it, hard. Next is Trafoi, climbing 628 m.
Trafoi is a village of a few dozen houses in the Ortles Alps of South Tyrol, at about 1,540 metres, on the northern approach to the Stelvio Pass, and it sits under one of the great mountain faces of the Alps. The Ortler, at 3,905 metres the highest peak in the region, rises above the village in a wall of ice and rock, and it was first climbed in 1804 by a local hunter, Josef Pichler, on the orders of an Austrian archduke. The glaciers hang right over the valley, and on a clear morning the sight is so large that the village looks like a toy.
Read the complete Trafoi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Trafoi comes up 334 km in. The road climbs 628 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Santa Maria Val Müstair, mostly downhill.
Santa Maria in the Val Müstair is, strictly speaking, in Switzerland, not Italy, tucked into the far south-east corner of Graubünden a few kilometres from the border at Tubre. The valley is quiet, with meadows, a small river and low houses with painted facades, and the main language is Romansh, a Latin tongue that survives here in several dialects. It sits at around 1,375 metres, so the air is cool and dry, and in spring the fields are full of flowers.
Read the complete Santa Maria Val Müstair write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fill up here — 74 km left and no pump marked after this. Next is Umbrail Pass, climbing 1126 m.
Umbrail is the quiet sister of the Stelvio. At 2,501 metres it is the highest paved pass in Switzerland, and yet most people ride past its turning without noticing. It leaves the Stelvio road just below the summit on the Italian side and drops into Switzerland, down to Santa Maria in the Val Müstair, on a road that is narrower, emptier and a good deal slower than its neighbour. There is a Swiss border post near the top, and you should carry your passport.
Read the complete Umbrail Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 2501 m here. The road climbs 1126 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Back to Bormio, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bormio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Bormio closes the day. You lose 1276 m on the way down to it, steadily.
Bormio overnight base → Santa Maria fuel is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Santa Maria fuel → Stelvio Pass is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stelvio Pass → Gavia Pass is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gavia Pass → Tirano food is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tirano food → Back to Bormio is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bormio → Stelvio Pass summit climbs about 1532 m in 26 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Stelvio Pass summit → Prato allo Stelvio drops about 1842 m over 41 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Prato allo Stelvio → Trafoi climbs about 628 m in 17 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Trafoi → Santa Maria Val Müstair is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Santa Maria Val Müstair → Umbrail Pass climbs about 1126 m in 21 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Umbrail Pass → Back to Bormio drops about 1276 m over 24 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.