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.
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.
From Versoix it runs 280 km to Versoix; allow about 3 h 55 of riding. It goes by way of Stations de Morges, Lavaux, Baie de Clendy and back through Lavaux. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 50 km this is Route des Grandes Alpes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Lake Geneva has a gentle northern shore and a steep one, and Bellerive lies on the quiet side. Collonge-Bellerive is a village on the Geneva side of the lake, a few kilometres from the city, with lawns running down to the water, old villas and a small harbour where sailing boats bob. Some five thousand years ago, people built houses on piles in the shallows here, and what remains of that settlement lies below the surface, protected as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011. There is nothing to see from the shore except the lake and the Alps, so the visit is about the setting.
Read the complete Bellerive I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bellerive I is where the day begins. Next is Stations de Morges.
On a calm morning the lake off Morges is as flat as polished pewter, with the Savoy Alps on the far shore and Mont Blanc floating above them, and it is hard to believe that anyone ever had to fight for this view. Yet people have been living right here for millennia. Just off the shore, in the shallow water near the town, lie the remains of prehistoric villages built on piles, the Stations de Morges, one of the Swiss components of the UNESCO Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Divers and archaeologists have mapped wooden posts and objects from the Bronze Age, but from the shore you will see only water, swans and the occasional paddleboarder.
Read the complete Stations de Morges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stations de Morges comes up 40 km in. Next is Lavaux.
From the shore of Lake Geneva the vineyards of Lavaux climb almost vertically, terrace upon terrace, held up by stone walls, to villages perched on the slopes above. Monks from Cistercian abbeys began shaping these hillsides in the Middle Ages, and generations of winegrowers have rebuilt the walls ever since, carrying soil back up when rain washes it down. The result is one of the most striking wine landscapes in the world, stretching about thirty kilometres between Lausanne and Montreux, and listed by UNESCO in 2007. Locals like to say that the vines here enjoy three suns: the one in the sky, its reflection off the lake and the warmth stored in the stone walls.
Read the complete Lavaux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
80 km in you reach Lavaux. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baie de Clendy, about halfway. Next is back through Lavaux.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lavaux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lavaux sits at 160 km, about halfway. Next is back through Stations de Morges.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stations de Morges write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Stations de Morges comes up 200 km in. Next is Bellerive I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bellerive I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bellerive I closes the day.
Bellerive I → Stations de Morges is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stations de Morges → Lavaux is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lavaux → Baie de Clendy is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baie de Clendy → back through Lavaux is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lavaux → back through Stations de Morges is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stations de Morges → Bellerive I is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.