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.
531 km from Airolo to Bussigny, about 9 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Andermatt, Furka, Grimsel and Interlaken. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 186 km this is Furka Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 89 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Every road across the Alps has a character, and the Gotthard's is that of a main street. For centuries it has been the shortest route between northern Europe and Italy, the pass that built Switzerland's early alliances and that every army, merchant and pilgrim wanted. The summit lies at 2,106 metres, in a bare, grey landscape of granite and small lakes, with a hospice, a museum and little else. From here the water goes four ways: the Reuss flows north to the Rhine, the Ticino south to the Po, and the Rhône and the Rhine begin close by.
Read the complete Gotthard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gotthard is where the day begins. Next is Andermatt.
The dot falls north-west of Andermatt, in the high Urner Alps near the Susten Pass road, where granite peaks, glaciers and bare slabs of rock dominate the view and the road clings to the mountainside as it climbs. It is country that feels cold even in summer, with snow lingering in the gullies and the air smelling of stone and meltwater. Andermatt itself, the label on the map, lies about fifteen kilometres to the south-east in the Urseren valley, a flat, wide, windy basin at about 1,440 metres.
Read the complete Andermatt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Andermatt comes up about 186 km into the recorded legs. Next is Furka.
Somewhere in the glaciated heart of the Bernese Oberland, close to the Grimsel lakes and a short distance from the Furka Pass, this dot falls in country that belongs more to climbers than to riders. The mountains here are huge and bare, the Finsteraarhorn and its neighbours stand above deep valleys, and the rivers run milky with glacial flour. It is among the wildest parts of the Alps.
Read the complete Furka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 223 km into the recorded legs you reach Furka. Next is Grimsel.
The dot is in Interlaken, the old tourist town between two lakes, with the label pointing to the Grimsel Pass that lies some forty kilometres to the east. Leukerbad sits on a flat strip of land between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, which is exactly what its name means, and the Aare river runs through it, a bright blue-green ribbon that is wider than you expect. From here, the great white mass of the Jungfrau and its neighbours fills the southern sky, and on a clear morning it seems close enough to touch.
Read the complete Grimsel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grimsel, about halfway. Next is Interlaken.
Place association under review. The retained source text conflicts with its location label; verify the stop in the planner before using it.
The label says Interlaken, but the dot is actually high above the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais, at Leukerbad, a small spa village tucked at the head of a steep side valley under the cliffs of the Gemmi. It is a quiet, curious place, about 1,400 metres above sea level, and it is surrounded by a wall of rock on three sides, with waterfalls streaming from the heights after rain.
Read the complete Interlaken write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Leukerbad sits at 277 km, about halfway. Next is Thun.
Place association under review. The retained source text conflicts with its location label; verify the stop in the planner before using it.
The dot is at Sion, the capital of the Valais, a town of about twenty-eight thousand in the broad, sunny Rhône valley, and nowhere near the lake and castle at Thun that the label suggests. Sion is Switzerland's driest region in many places, protected by the high Alps on both sides, and it grows grapes, apricots and asparagus in a climate that feels almost Mediterranean. Two great rocky hills rise from the town floor, each crowned by a medieval fortress.
Read the complete Thun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sion comes up about 415 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bern.
Place association under review. The retained source text conflicts with its location label; verify the stop in the planner before using it.
The label says Bern, but the dot is in the Chablais, at the lower end of the Rhône valley near Aigle and Vionnaz, about a hundred kilometres south-west of the Swiss capital. This is where the great river, having run west through the Valais, turns north toward Lake Geneva, and the landscape is a mix of broad flat farmland, steep vineyards and bare limestone peaks, the Dents du Midi, whose serrated summits dominate the horizon to the south.
Read the complete Bern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 471 km into the recorded legs you reach Bern. Next is Neuchâtel.
Place association under review. The retained source text conflicts with its location label; verify the stop in the planner before using it.
The label says Neuchâtel, but you are not at the lake. Neuchâtel, with its castle and its long, pale blue lake, is a good forty kilometres to the north-east, past the first folds of the Jura. This is the landscape on the way, a rolling plateau of farms, orchards and beech woods, where the road to Neuchâtel begins.
Read the complete Neuchâtel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Neuchâtel. That is the ride.
Gotthard → Andermatt is 186 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Andermatt → Furka is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Furka → Grimsel is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grimsel → Interlaken is 97 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Leukerbad → Thun is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sion → Bern is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aigle and the Chablais → Neuchâtel is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.