Simplon Pass Road (83 km)

Brig to Domodossola

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Why this ride

Out of Brig, one way: 83 km, roughly 1 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Simplon Dorf and Simplon Pass. The highest point is about 2,500 m. Simplon Pass is subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.

Roadbook

1. Brig start

   Brig is a small town with a big palace, and its position at the foot of the Simplon Pass gives it a significance out of proportion to its size. It sits in the upper Rhône valley in the canton of Valais, where the river runs west to Lake Geneva, and a route over the mountains to Italy has existed here since Roman times. The Stockalperschloss, the biggest private residence in Switzerland when it was completed in the late seventeenth century, was built by Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper, a merchant who controlled the Simplon trade and became the richest man in the country. With its three onion-domed towers, named for the Three Kings, it dominates the old town and is open to visitors.

   The Simplon Pass road is the reason riders come. Napoleon had a carriage road built over it between 1801 and 1805, so that his armies could cross to Italy, and it is still one of the great engineering works of the age. The road climbs in broad curves out of the Rhône valley, passes through galleries and over a famous bridge at the Ganter gorge, and crosses the top at about two thousand metres. The surface is good, the bends are open and consistent, and the views toward the Bernese and Valais Alps are huge. The pass is usually open from about May to October, and sections can be icy in the shoulder seasons, so check road conditions before you go.

   South of the border lies the Italian valley of the Ossola, and Domodossola is a pleasant place for lunch. The Simplon Tunnel, a railway tunnel opened in 1906, runs far beneath the pass and was the longest tunnel in the world for much of the twentieth century. Naters, just across the river from Brig, is the starting point for the Aletsch Glacier region, the largest ice stream in the Alps.

   Brig and Naters together have fuel, supermarkets and plenty of restaurants, and the town is a handy base. The Rhône valley can be hot in summer and windy in the afternoon, so start the pass early.

   Raclette, melted local cheese scraped onto potatoes, is the Valais speciality, and a glass of Fendant, a crisp white wine, goes with it.

2. Simplon Dorf scenic

   Simplon village sits at about 1,470 metres on the northern slope of the Simplon Pass, in the Swiss canton of Valais, and it is a place that gets its living from a road. A cluster of stone houses with dark timber upper floors, a church tower and an old inn stands on a green shelf above the Gantertal, and the Alps close in on every side. In winter the snow is deep, in summer the meadows are full of flowers, and at all times there is a faint sense of being on a route to somewhere else.

   The road is the story. Traders had crossed the Simplon since the Middle Ages, and in the seventeenth century a merchant named Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper built a trading empire on it, with warehouses, a hospice and a mule track that made the pass practicable. His great palace still stands in the town of Brig, on the northern side. In 1801 Napoleon ordered a carriage road across the pass, and the modern road still follows much of that line.

   The ride up from Brig is a long, rhythmic climb, with the road looping up the hillside and crossing the Ganter bridge, a modern concrete viaduct that stretches across a deep gorge. The curves are open, the gradient is moderate, and the surface is generally excellent. In the village, the road slows to a village speed and passes between houses, and then it opens again for the last climb to the summit. Traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, when cars and buses from northern Europe stream over to Italy, and a quiet morning is better.

   Simplon Dorf has a few inns and cafes, a small shop and a post office, and the food is typical Valais cooking, with raclette, dried meats and rye bread. The local Walliser Roggenbrot is a dense, dark loaf made with rye, and it keeps well in a pannier.

   For fuel, do not rely on the village, as there is little here. Brig, about fourteen kilometres below on the northern side, is the nearest large town, with several stations, and Domodossola, on the southern side, also offers plenty. Fill the tank before the climb, and bring a warm layer, because the weather at the top can be cold and windy even on a clear day.

3. Simplon Pass scenic · 2005 m

   The Simplon Pass is the grandest of the Swiss crossings to Italy that Napoleon bothered to build. At 2,005 metres, it lies on a broad, grassy saddle between the Valais Alps and the Lepontine range, and the road that crosses it, finished in 1805, was the first carriage road across the Alps. It was built for military reasons, and its engineers were told to make it wide and gentle enough for artillery, so riders benefit from a gradient that never becomes harsh and from generous, well-planned bends.

   At the summit stands the Simplon Hospice, a big, plain stone building that was begun by Napoleon's order and completed by the Augustinian canons of the Great St Bernard in the 1830s. The monks still live and work there, with their famous dogs, and the building gives a reassuring sense of shelter in a bare landscape. A short distance away, a huge stone eagle on a pedestal commemorates the Swiss soldiers who guarded the border during the Second World War, and it is a good landmark for photographs, with the peaks of the Bernese and Valais Alps behind.

   The ride from the north starts at Brig and climbs through Simplon Dorf. From the summit, the road drops steeply to the south, into the narrow gorge of Gondo, where the road passes through galleries cut into the rock and waterfalls spill onto the roadway. Beyond the border lies Italy, with its different light and quickly warming air, and the road continues to Varzo and Domodossola. The surface is generally good, but the galleries can be damp, with water on the road, and the shadows make the bends harder to read. Traffic is heavy in summer, and trucks use the road, so passing needs patience.

   The pass is open for most of the year, although heavy snow can close it for short periods in winter, and chains are required when conditions are bad. The weather at the summit is unpredictable, with cloud, wind and sudden temperature drops common. The best time is from late spring to early autumn, in the morning, when visibility is good and traffic is light. Do not be surprised by a snow shower in June.

   Brig, on the northern side, and Domodossola, about seventeen kilometres from the top on the Italian side, are the nearest larger towns, and Varzo is a smaller place between them. Prices in Switzerland are higher than in Italy, so you may want to eat in Italy, and buy fuel there too.

4. Domodossola finish

   Domodossola is the Italian doorstep of the Simplon, a town of about eighteen thousand that sits at the junction of several Alpine valleys in the northern Piedmont, at the point where the Ossola valley opens toward Lake Maggiore. For centuries it has been a place of passage, with merchants, pilgrims and armies crossing the mountains by the Simplon road, and its old centre, built around the Piazza Mercato, still has the arcades, wooden balconies and frescoed houses of a market town. The weekly market is lively, and local cheeses, cured meats and the sweet wines of the valley are for sale.

   Above the town, the Sacro Monte Calvario climbs a wooded hill in a sequence of chapels and stations, a UNESCO-listed pilgrimage route built in the seventeenth century and still a peaceful walk. The setting is lovely, with views over the rooftops and the surrounding mountains. The town is also the railway gateway to the Simplon Tunnel, which opened in 1906 and, at nearly twenty kilometres, was for decades the longest in the world.

   The pass road itself was ordered by Napoleon, who wanted a way to move guns and soldiers into Italy, and was built between 1801 and 1805 by the engineer Nicolas Céard, with a great number of bridges, galleries and cuttings. It is one of the most civilised high passes in the Alps, wide, smoothly graded and well surfaced, which makes it a fine road for a touring bike. From Domodossola you head up through the Gondo gorge, a spectacular, narrow cleft with waterfalls pouring off the cliffs, then cross into Switzerland and climb to the pass at around 2,000 metres, where the old Simplon Hospice stands.

   Fuel is easy in Domodossola, and cheaper on the Italian side than in Switzerland, so fill the tank before you cross. Be aware that the pass has seasonal closures, usually from late autumn to spring, though the tunnel remains open for cars on the train. The Italian approach can be warm and humid, while the pass is much cooler and often windy. Eat something local before you go, perhaps a plate of polenta with cheese, and take your time.

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