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.
A 94 km one-way ride from near Sargans, about 1 h 20 of riding. The highest point is 1,793 m. Arlberg Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. It crosses from Switzerland into Austria - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
For about 59 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
The last of the trees go and the road runs out onto open ground. The summit sits at 1793 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.
Sargans is a small town doing something unexpectedly big. It sits on a low saddle in the Rhine valley where the river, instead of flowing on west toward Lake Constance as it now does, once could just as easily have turned toward the Walensee and Zurich. The ridge between the two directions is barely a rise in the ground, which is why geographers like to point at Sargans and say the whole river's fate depended on a patch of gravel. Today the Rhine runs north, and the town's modest castle on its rocky knoll watches over the valley and the Liechtenstein hills across the water.
Read the complete Sargans fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sargans is where the day begins. Next is Bludenz food stop.
Bludenz sits at the meeting of several valleys, and that is its whole story. The Walgau runs northwest toward the Rhine, the Klostertal heads east to the Arlberg, the Brandnertal climbs south to the Lünersee, and the Montafon carries the Ill river up to the Silvretta. At 588 metres, the town is a low point in a landscape of high peaks, with the Rätikon walls rising behind the old centre and a compact medieval core of arcades and painted houses. It is an ideal place to begin a ride into the mountains.
Read the complete Bludenz food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bludenz food stop is where this day stops to eat. Next is Arlberg return option, climbing 1205 m.
Anton, where the road begins its climb. It is one of the oldest crossing points in the Eastern Alps, used since the Middle Ages by traders and pilgrims, and the name itself is thought to come from the dwarf pines, the Arlen, that grow on the slopes. A hospice was built on the pass in the fourteenth century to help travellers survive the winter, and the cult of St. Christopher that grew up there is still remembered in the name of the village below.
Read the complete Arlberg return option write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 94 km. The road climbs 1205 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 9 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Nothing on this route is higher.
Sargans fuel gate → Bludenz food stop is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bludenz food stop → Arlberg return option climbs about 1205 m in 35 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.