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.
150 km one way from Valloire - plan on about 2 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Col d Izoard and Col de Vars. The highest point is 2,715 m. Col du Galibier, Col d Izoard, Col de Vars and Col de Restefond are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 2642 m, and what surrounds it is rock, weather and distance — cold comes early up here and stays late. Ride it with something in reserve: the summit is not the end of the work, only the middle of it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 81 km. 607 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall. A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not.
The Galibier is the big one, and it knows it. At 2,642 metres this is one of the high gates of the French Alps, the saddle where the Maurienne valley to the north hands you over to the Guisane and the Briançonnais to the south, and the road crosses it by way of a short tunnel under the actual crest, or, for those who want the proper view, by the final few hundred metres of open hairpin that go over the top. The summit marker stands on the old crest, with a monument to Henri Desgrange, the founder of the Tour de France, who first sent the race over this pass in 1911. Cyclists still turn up in swarms to touch the sign, so expect lycra and an unhurried pace.
Read the complete Col du Galibier write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Col du Galibier is where the day begins. Reckon on about 3 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Col d Izoard, mostly downhill.
The Col d'Izoard, at 2,360 metres, is one of the great passes of the French Alps, on the road between Briançon and the Queyras, and the south side is the part riders remember. A few kilometres below the summit the road passes through the Casse Déserte, a startling field of orange and grey scree and rock pinnacles, eroded into odd shapes, which looks more like the surface of another planet than the Alps. In front of it stands a monument to the cyclists Fausto Coppi and Louison Bobet, who both won here in the Tour de France, and the Tour has crossed the pass many times.
Read the complete Col d Izoard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Col d Izoard comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. You lose 282 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Col de Vars, mostly downhill.
The Col de Vars is the gentle one on the Route des Grandes Alpes, and it knows how to be pleasant. At 2,108 metres it separates the Guil valley from the valley of the Ubaye, linking Guillestre in the Hautes-Alpes to Barcelonnette on the other side, and from the top you look over rounded grassy slopes, scattered larches and a few farm buildings, with the jagged peaks of the Queyras and the Mercantour at a respectful distance. It lacks the savage edges of the higher passes, and is better for it on a warm day, when the grass smells of thyme and the cowbells carry on the wind.
Read the complete Col de Vars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 103 km into the recorded legs you reach Col de Vars. You lose 252 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Col de la Bonette, climbing 607 m.
The Col de la Bonette is the high-altitude trophy of the Alps, and it is worth being clear about the statistics. The pass itself is at 2,715 metres, but a loop road branches off to circle the Cime de la Bonette at 2,802 metres, making it the highest paved through road in Europe, or so it is usually claimed. The road was built largely for military reasons in the 1930s, when France worried about its Italian border, and finished in its present form around 1960. Up here, on the border of the Mercantour National Park, the landscape is bare scree and rock, with patches of snow lingering into July, and nothing grows taller than a lichen.
Read the complete Col de la Bonette write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Col de la Bonette closes the day. The road climbs 607 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 4 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Nothing on this route is higher.
Col du Galibier → Col d Izoard is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Col d Izoard → Col de Vars is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Col de Vars → Col de la Bonette climbs about 607 m in 47 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.