CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
The Stelvio is the one every rider names, and the numbered hairpins on the Prato side deserve it. Ride it early: by ten the cyclists, campers and coaches turn the top third into a slow-moving queue. The Umbrail descent into Switzerland is the reward - narrower, emptier and far better surfaced than its reputation.
12 km on Stelvio Pass.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The valley floor is behind you and the road starts working for its height at about 8.5%. Corners stack above one another where the ground allows nothing straighter. First and second gear more often than not. Look through each corner to the next one and let the engine do the holding.
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 is where the day begins. Reckon on about 2 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Stelvio Pass summit, climbing 1532 m.
The Stelvio at its summit is a strange mix of mountain and market. At 2,757 metres, it is the second highest paved pass in the Alps, and the car park is crowded with coaches, camper vans, motorbikes and stalls selling sausages, hats and souvenirs. Cold wind blows across the saddle even in July, so keep a jacket in your top box. Ahead the Ortler massif, the highest peak in the eastern Alps at 3,905 metres, rises over the glaciers, and on a clear day it is worth taking a moment to look at it before the stalls draw your attention.
Read the complete Stelvio Pass summit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 2757 m here. The road climbs 1532 m on the way up to it, steeply. Reckon on about 12 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Nothing on this route is higher. At this height the road is a summer one: snow gates can stay shut into June and shut again in October. Next is Prato allo Stelvio, mostly downhill.
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.
A break here. You lose 1842 m on the way down to it, steeply. Next is Trafoi, climbing 628 m.
Trafoi is a village of a few dozen houses in the Ortles Alps of South Tyrol, at about 1,540 metres, on the northern approach to the Stelvio Pass, and it sits under one of the great mountain faces of the Alps. The Ortler, at 3,905 metres the highest peak in the region, rises above the village in a wall of ice and rock, and it was first climbed in 1804 by a local hunter, Josef Pichler, on the orders of an Austrian archduke. The glaciers hang right over the valley, and on a clear morning the sight is so large that the village looks like a toy.
Read the complete Trafoi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Trafoi, about halfway at 1543 m. The road climbs 628 m on the way up to it, hard. Reckon on about 4 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Santa Maria Val Müstair, mostly downhill.
Santa Maria in the Val Müstair is, strictly speaking, in Switzerland, not Italy, tucked into the far south-east corner of Graubünden a few kilometres from the border at Tubre. The valley is quiet, with meadows, a small river and low houses with painted facades, and the main language is Romansh, a Latin tongue that survives here in several dialects. It sits at around 1,375 metres, so the air is cool and dry, and in spring the fields are full of flowers.
Read the complete Santa Maria Val Müstair write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Reckon on about 3 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Umbrail Pass, climbing 1126 m.
Umbrail is the quiet sister of the Stelvio. At 2,501 metres it is the highest paved pass in Switzerland, and yet most people ride past its turning without noticing. It leaves the Stelvio road just below the summit on the Italian side and drops into Switzerland, down to Santa Maria in the Val Müstair, on a road that is narrower, emptier and a good deal slower than its neighbour. There is a Swiss border post near the top, and you should carry your passport.
Read the complete Umbrail Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Umbrail Pass is the summit of this stretch at 2501 m. The road climbs 1126 m on the way up to it, steeply. Reckon on about 10 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Back to Bormio, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bormio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Bormio closes the day. You lose 1276 m on the way down to it, steeply.