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.
From La Bresse it runs 424 km to La Bresse; allow about 8 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Forêt de la Bettlachstock, Pointe de Montbec I and back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from France into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The ride follows Grand Tour of Switzerland for 67 km.
At around 1,200 metres, the Grand Ventron is one of the high rounded summits on the main crest of the southern Vosges, where Lorraine meets Alsace. To the west lie the valleys of La Bresse and Ventron; to the east the ground falls steeply into the Thur valley above Kruth. The top is open, grassy and wind combed, a classic Vosges hautes-chaumes landscape of summer pastures, bilberry and granite boulders, with beech and fir forest closing in below. On a clear day the view runs across the Alsace plain to the Black Forest, and on rare exceptional days the Alps show as a pale line far to the south.
Read the complete Grand Ventron write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grand Ventron is where the day begins. Next is Forêt de la Bettlachstock.
Above the watchmaking towns of Grenchen and Bettlach, the first chain of the Jura rises like a wall out of the Aare plain, and on its steep southern flank grows the beech forest of the Bettlachstock. In 2021 it became one of the Swiss components of the UNESCO Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a serial site that stretches across the continent to show how beech spread after the last Ice Age. What makes this patch special is that it has been left largely to itself for decades, on slopes so steep and rocky that nobody bothered to log them hard, and so the trees grow old, fall, rot and feed the next generation.
Read the complete Forêt de la Bettlachstock write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Forêt de la Bettlachstock comes up about 145 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 212 km into the recorded legs you reach Pointe de Montbec I. Next is back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Forêt de la Bettlachstock write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock, late in the day. Next is Grand Ventron.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grand Ventron write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Grand Ventron. That is the ride.
Grand Ventron → Forêt de la Bettlachstock is 145 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Forêt de la Bettlachstock → Pointe de Montbec I is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pointe de Montbec I → back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Forêt de la Bettlachstock → Grand Ventron is 146 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.