Why this ride
A 271 km round trip from Yverdon-les-Bains - roughly 4 h 54 in the saddle. It goes by way of Les Grèves, Bahnhof, Les Graviers and Rütte. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Baie de Clendy and Rütte
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 271 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 54
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Jura Crest Scenic Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 36 km this is Jura Crest Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 36 km
- Named road
- Jura Crest Scenic Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Baie de Clendy
At the southern tip of Lake Neuchâtel, just east of Yverdon-les-Bains, the shore curves into a shallow bay fringed with reeds, poplars and a beach where local families swim in summer. Behind it, in a meadow, stands a double row of tall grey stones. These are the menhirs of Clendy, raised by Neolithic farmers more than five thousand years ago and re-erected in the twentieth century after they were found toppled in the ground. Offshore and along the bay lie the remains of lakeside settlements of the same era, part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Baie de Clendy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Baie de Clendy is where the day begins. Next is Les Grèves.
2. Les Grèves
Reeds, mostly. That is the first thing you notice when you roll down to Les Grèves on the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel: a soft wall of reed and willow between the fields and the water, with the Jura sitting long and blue on the far side of the lake. This stretch between Portalban, Gletterens and Chevroux belongs to the Grande Cariçaie, the biggest lakeshore marsh in Switzerland, and it only exists because people once moved an entire lake level.
Read the complete Les Grèves write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Les Grèves comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bahnhof.
3. Bahnhof
The label says only "Bahnhof", which is a nicely Swiss joke, because the real attraction here is not a station at all but the south shore of Lake Biel between Täuffelen, Gerolfingen and Lüscherz. This is the Seeland, a low, fertile plain between the lakes, and the villages along the shore are surrounded by vegetable fields, orchards and vineyards on the gentle slopes. Like the shores of Lake Neuchâtel to the south, this lake edge was home to prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and several sites around Lake Biel form part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The finds, from pottery to wooden tools, tell of farming communities that lived here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Bahnhof. Next is Les Graviers.
4. Les Graviers
Auvernier is a wine village with its feet in the water. Its old stone houses, cellars and narrow lanes climb from the shore of Lake Neuchâtel into vineyards, and the lake bed just off its little harbour holds the remains of prehistoric villages. Les Graviers is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, where archaeologists have found the traces of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements, with wooden piles, tools, pottery and food remains preserved in the lake mud. Many of the finds from the region are displayed at the Laténium, a superb archaeology museum by the lake at Hauterive, on the other side of Neuchâtel.
Read the complete Les Graviers write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Les Graviers, about halfway. Next is Rütte.
5. Rütte
Rütte sits on the gentle southern slope above Lake Biel, a scatter of farms and orchards between the village of Bellmund and the lakeshore, with the long blue ridge of the Jura filling the view across the water. Nidau and the city of Biel are a few minutes away, yet up here it feels thoroughly rural: cows, cherry trees, a sharp smell of cut grass in early summer and the clank of a tractor somewhere below.
Read the complete Rütte write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Rütte sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Les Graviers.
6. back through Les Graviers
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Graviers write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Les Graviers comes up about 175 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Bahnhof.
7. back through Bahnhof
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bahnhof write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 205 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Bahnhof. Next is back through Les Grèves.
8. back through Les Grèves
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Grèves write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Les Grèves, late in the day. Next is Baie de Clendy.
9. Baie de Clendy
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baie de Clendy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 271 km.
Leg by leg
Baie de Clendy to Les Grèves
Baie de Clendy → Les Grèves is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Grèves to Bahnhof
Les Grèves → Bahnhof is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bahnhof to Les Graviers
Bahnhof → Les Graviers is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Graviers to Rütte
Les Graviers → Rütte is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rütte to back through Les Graviers
Rütte → back through Les Graviers is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Graviers to back through Bahnhof
back through Les Graviers → back through Bahnhof is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bahnhof to back through Les Grèves
back through Bahnhof → back through Les Grèves is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Grèves to Baie de Clendy
back through Les Grèves → Baie de Clendy is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
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- La Chaux-de-Fonds and Bahnhof · 214 km
- La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle and Bahnhof · 214 km