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 40 km one-way ride from near Hinterrhein, about 49 min of riding. On the way it passes Splugen Pass and Montespluga. The highest point is about 2,200 m. Splügen 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. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
This part of the ride is 9 km of Passo dello Spluga.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
For about 28 km this is Passo dello Spluga, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Splügen is where the Rhine, still a young and rather modest river, runs through the high Rheinwald valley in Graubünden, and the village has been a waystation for as long as people have wanted to get over the Alps. Two passes leave from here: the Splügen itself, 2,113 metres, which drops to Italy and the Valle San Giacomo, and the San Bernardino, 2,066 metres, which heads south into Ticino. Choosing between them at the village fountain is one of the nicer decisions in the Alps.
Read the complete Splugen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Splügen is where the day begins. Next is Splugen Pass.
The Splügen Pass is the border between the Swiss canton of Graubünden and the Italian province of Sondrio, and at 2,114 metres it is one of the most beautiful ways to move between them. It has been in use since Roman times, and the road that crosses it today follows a route that was important for trade between Lombardy and the Rhine, with wine, grain and iron travelling north and salt and cattle south. Its character is bleak and open, with bare slopes, scattered boulders and a vast sky.
Read the complete Splugen Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Splügen Pass comes up about 9 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Montespluga, mostly downhill.
Montespluga is a handful of buildings by a reservoir at about 1,900 metres, just below the Splügen Pass on the Italian side, and it feels like the end of the road, even though the road goes on. The village is at the head of the Valle Spluga, and it sits beside the dark blue water of Lake Montespluga, a long reservoir that was dammed in the twentieth century to generate electricity, and which covered part of the old village. The mountains rise from the shore in bare slopes of grey rock and tussock grass, and in the evening the light on the water is clear and cold.
Read the complete Montespluga write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 12 km into the recorded legs you reach Montespluga. Next is Chiavenna.
Chiavenna is a town of about seven thousand people at the head of the Valchiavenna, where two great Alpine roads, the Splügen and the Maloja, split in different directions. The name is believed to come from the Latin clavis, a key, which is just what it was, the key to the passes between Lombardy and the north. Romans, medieval merchants and Habsburg troops all came this way, and the old town still has narrow streets, stone doorways and a small museum in a historic palace. The Mera river runs through the valley, cold and green.
Read the complete Chiavenna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chiavenna closes the day.
Splügen → Splugen Pass is 9 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Splügen Pass → Montespluga is 3 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Montespluga → Chiavenna is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.