Why this ride
A one-way ride of 418 km, Thonon-les-Bains to Annot - roughly 7 h 00 in the saddle. 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.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Route des Grandes Alpes · part 1
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 418 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 00
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Route des Grandes Alpes
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 205 km this is Route des Grandes Alpes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 205 km
- Named road
- Route des Grandes Alpes
- Pass
- Col des Aravis
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Near Thonon-les-Bains
The Route des Grandes Alpes officially begins on the shore of Lake Geneva at Thonon-les-Bains and ends some seven hundred kilometres later on the Mediterranean at Menton. Standing here at the start, with the lake spread out flat and silver in front of you and the Swiss shore hazy on the far side, it is hard to believe that within an hour you will be climbing into proper mountains. That contrast is the whole romance of the thing.
Read the complete Near Thonon-les-Bains write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Waypoint 1 is where the day begins. Next is Waypoint 2.
2. Near Modane
This spot lies in the Maurienne, the long valley of the river Arc that runs from the high Alps down toward Chambéry, and the town of Modane sits at the heart of it. For centuries this was the way across the mountains to Italy, via the Mont Cenis pass, and in the nineteenth century engineers drove a railway tunnel under the Fréjus massif, which opened in 1871 and gave the town its role as a border station. A road tunnel followed in 1980. Today Modane is quiet and a bit industrial, but its position makes it a natural stopping place.
Read the complete Near Modane write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Waypoint 2 comes up about 205 km into the recorded legs. Next is Waypoint 3.
3. Waypoint 3
The Route des Grandes Alpes is a French invention of the early twentieth century, a line drawn from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean to link the high passes, and at this point on it you are in the quiet southern part, Haute-Provence, where the Alps run out of height and begin to smell of thyme.
Read the complete Waypoint 3 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 418 km.