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.
From Prato Allo Stelvio it runs 47 km to Bormio; allow about 57 min of riding. The stops in between: Trafoi and Stelvio Pass. The highest point is about 2,750 m. Stelvio Pass is open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 11 km this is Stelvio Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
14 km on Stelvio Pass.
Prato allo Stelvio, or Prad am Stilfserjoch in German, is a village of around two and a half thousand people in the Val Venosta, in South Tyrol, at 915 metres above sea level. It is the doorstep of the Stelvio Pass from the eastern side, and the place where most riders who approach from the Vinschgau valley fill up, have a coffee and gather their courage. Almost everyone speaks German first and Italian second, and the village looks more Austrian than Italian, with painted house fronts and flower boxes.
Read the complete Prato allo Stelvio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prato allo Stelvio is where the day begins. Next is Trafoi.
Trafoi is the last village before the Stelvio gets serious. It sits at about fifteen hundred metres in a narrow valley in South Tyrol, and above it the wall of the Ortler massif rises in a dazzling block of snow and ice, the highest peak of the Eastern Alps outside the Bernina range, at 3,905 metres. German is the first language here, with Italian a close second, and the church, the wooden balconies and the dumplings on the menu all say Tyrol rather than Lombardy. A short walk up the valley takes you to the Three Holy Springs, a pilgrimage spot where, the story goes, the Virgin appeared to a local shepherd girl in the nineteenth century, and a small chapel has stood beside the water ever since.
Read the complete Trafoi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Trafoi comes up about 11 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stelvio Pass.
Few roads in Europe have a reputation as large as the Stelvio, and for once it is deserved. At 2,757 metres, it is one of the highest paved passes in the Alps, and the road up from the Trafoi side is a staircase of forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked against the mountainside, while the Bormio side has about forty of its own, longer and more open. Engineers of the Austrian empire built it in the 1820s to link Lombardy with the Tyrol, under the direction of Carlo Donegani, and it was meant for horse-drawn carts, which explains why the bends are so tight.
Read the complete Stelvio Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 25 km into the recorded legs you reach Stelvio Pass. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Bormio, mostly downhill.
Bormio lies in a high valley of Lombardy, a town of narrow lanes, stone arches and church bells at around 1,200 metres, with mountains rising steeply on every side. It has been a spa since Roman times, and the warm springs that bubble up from deep in the rock still feed thermal baths where you can soak after a long day. In winter it is a ski resort with a long tradition, and the famously steep Stelvio downhill run, used for World Cup races, starts above the town.
Read the complete Bormio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bormio closes the day.
Prato allo Stelvio → Trafoi is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Trafoi → Stelvio Pass is 14 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Stelvio Pass → Bormio is 21 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.