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.
301 km one way from Valloire - plan on about 6 h 11 of riding. The stops in between: Col d Izoard, Col de Vars, Col de la Bonette and Col de Turini. The highest point is about 2,700 m. Col du Galibier, Col d Izoard, Col de Vars, Col de Restefond and Col de Turini are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
81 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it. This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not. The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 71 km. 607 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall.
The ride follows Route des Grandes Alpes for 37 km.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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. 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, about halfway at 2715 m. The road climbs 607 m on the way up to it, steadily. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Col de Turini, mostly downhill.
Turini belongs to the Monte Carlo Rally more than to any map. For decades the rally's night stage over this pass has been one of the most famous in motorsport, the Nuit du Turini, when spectators light fires in the forest and cars appear out of the darkness with a wall of floodlights. At 1,607 metres, the col is not especially high, but it is wrapped in a dense forest of fir and larch, which is why the hairpins on both sides are so intimate, with rock walls and tree trunks flashing past close to your shoulder.
Read the complete Col de Turini write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Col de Turini sits at 378 km, late in the day. You lose 1108 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Menton, mostly downhill.
Menton is the last town in France before Italy, the finish of the Route des Grandes Alpes, and after seven hundred kilometres of mountains it feels like being tipped into a warm bath. The old town tumbles down a hill to the harbour in tones of ochre, apricot and cream, topped by the baroque Basilica of Saint Michael with its glowing facade. The climate is the mildest on the French Riviera, sheltered by the mountains behind, and the local lemons are famous, celebrated each February in the Fête du Citron, when huge sculptures made of fruit and flowers fill the gardens and people parade through the streets.
Read the complete Menton write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 301 km.
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.
Col de la Bonette → Col de Turini drops about 1108 m over 114 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Col de Turini → Menton is 37 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.