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 Estavayer-le-Lac it runs 66 km to Estavayer-le-Lac; allow about 1 h 23 of riding. On the way it passes Chenevières de Guévaux I, Strandboden and back through Chenevières de Guévaux I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Scenic road chapters
Grand Tour of Switzerland
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 16 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
16 km
Named road
Grand Tour of Switzerland
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. La Bessime
Lake Neuchâtel is the largest lake entirely within Switzerland, a long, narrow body of water at the foot of the Jura mountains, and its shallow shores have been home to people for thousands of years. La Bessime is one of the prehistoric pile-dwelling sites of the lake, part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011. Like most such sites, it lies underwater or buried in the lake bed, with the remains of wooden posts, tools, pottery and food preserved in the mud, invisible to the visitor but invaluable to archaeologists.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La Bessime is where the day begins. Next is Chenevières de Guévaux I.
2. Chenevières de Guévaux I
Lake Murten is small, shallow and warm, framed on its north side by the vine-covered whale back of Mont Vully. Under its shallows near the Vully shore lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and Chenevières de Guévaux is one of them, part of the UNESCO site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber posts along lake shores like this one. Waterlogged conditions preserved posts, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years, and the finds transformed what we know about early farming communities in Europe.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chenevières de Guévaux I comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Strandboden.
3. Strandboden
Erlach sits at the south-western tip of Lake Biel, a little Bernese town of one steep street climbing to a castle, with vineyards on the slope behind and reed beds and beaches along the shore below. The flat ground by the water, the Strandboden, is where archaeologists have found traces of prehistoric lakeside villages, part of the network of pile dwelling sites around the Alps inscribed by UNESCO in 2011. Five or six thousand years ago farmers built their houses here on posts at the water's edge, and the waterlogged mud preserved timbers, tools, seeds and even textiles in astonishing detail.