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.
A 203 km round trip from Erlach - roughly 3 h 41 in the saddle. It goes by way of Pointe de Montbec I, La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Les Argilliez and back through La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 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 about 23 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The south shore of Lake Biel is a gentle place of reeds, vineyards on the far bank and farmland stretching back towards the Seeland plain, and at Lüscherz, one of the small lakeside villages, the remains of a prehistoric pile-dwelling settlement lie in the shallows. Dorfstation, as the site is known, is part of the transnational World Heritage Site of Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, inscribed in 2011. Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers built their houses on wooden piles along the shore, and the waterlogged ground preserved timbers, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years.
Read the complete Dorfstation write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dorfstation is where the day begins. Next is Pointe de Montbec I.
The south shore of Lake Neuchâtel is a long, soft margin of reeds, shallow water and woodland, and it hides one of the richest archaeological records in Europe. Pointe de Montbec, near the villages along the Fribourg and Vaud shore opposite Neuchâtel, is one of the places where prehistoric lake dwellers built their villages on the water's edge thousands of years ago. Their houses stood on piles driven into the soft lake shore, and when lake levels rose, the remains were sealed under water and mud, preserving wood, textiles, seeds and tools in astonishing detail. The prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps were inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 as a single serial site spanning six countries, and this shore contributes a good number of them.
Read the complete Pointe de Montbec I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pointe de Montbec I comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle.
At about a thousand metres up in the Jura, in a long, high valley where winter arrives early and leaves late, two towns spent two centuries making most of the world's watches. La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle are strange, fascinating places: not pretty old towns, but industrial cities laid out on a grid, with long parallel streets of apartment blocks designed to let maximum light into workshops where generations of craftsmen assembled tiny gears by the window. Their urban planning, built entirely around one industry, is on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle. Next is Les Argilliez.
Around the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, the water level once sat lower than it does now, and prehistoric farmers built villages on pilings along the edge. Les Argilliez, near Gorgier on the northwest shore, preserves traces of one of them. The wet mud at the bottom of the lake kept wood, textiles and tools in astonishing condition, which is why the pile dwellings around the Alps were inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. There is little to see above the waterline, but the idea of a village standing on stilts in these waters, with the Jura mountains behind it, is a strong one.
Read the complete Les Argilliez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les Argilliez, about halfway. Next is back through La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle sits at 113 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pointe de Montbec I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pointe de Montbec I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pointe de Montbec I comes up about 180 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dorfstation.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dorfstation write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dorfstation closes the day.
Dorfstation → Pointe de Montbec I is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pointe de Montbec I → La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle → Les Argilliez is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Argilliez → back through La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle → back through Pointe de Montbec I is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pointe de Montbec I → Dorfstation is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.