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 107 km one-way ride from near Bellinzona, about 2 h 09 of riding. The stops in between: Locarno, Ascona and Centovalli. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,700 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 23 km this is Ticino Lakes and Valleys Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Bellinzona is the town that guarded the Alps. It lies on a flat piece of the Ticino valley where the routes from the Gotthard, San Bernardino and Lukmanier passes come together, and whoever held it controlled the way between northern Europe and Italy. Three castles, Castelgrande, Montebello and Sasso Corbaro, stand on rocky hills over the old town, linked by walls, and they form a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Milanese Visconti and Sforza dukes strengthened them in the fifteenth century, before the Swiss cantons took control, and Bellinzona stayed with them ever since. The oldest, Castelgrande, rises from a rocky outcrop right in the middle of town, and you can wander its courtyards and ramparts.
Read the complete Bellinzona write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bellinzona is where the day begins. Next is Locarno.
Locarno is a lakeside town on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, and it has a different climate from the rest of Switzerland, mild enough that palms and camellias grow along the waterfront. It lies at the foot of the Alps, on the edge of the Ticino delta, where the Maggia river reaches the lake, and the mix of mountains, water and Mediterranean light has drawn visitors for centuries. The town is Italian-speaking, and the feel of it, with its arcades, cafes and piazzas, is unmistakably southern.
Read the complete Locarno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Locarno comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ascona.
Ascona is the pretty cousin of Locarno, a few minutes along the lakeshore, and the better place to sit down. The old centre is a tangle of narrow lanes, houses painted in ochre and rose and a waterfront promenade lined with cafes, and the whole thing looks out across Lake Maggiore toward the mountains of Italy. Boats bob in the harbour and light dances off the water, and in the evening the terraces fill with people who have no particular plans.
Read the complete Ascona write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 26 km into the recorded legs you reach Ascona. Next is Centovalli.
The Centovalli, the Hundred Valleys, is the name given to the long, wooded cleft that runs from Locarno west to the Italian border and beyond to Domodossola, and the name is not much exaggerated. Streams run down from every side through steep gullies, the slopes are covered in chestnut and beech, and the road follows the main river, the Melezza, through a landscape of rock, water and stone villages that seems a world apart from the polished lakeshore a few minutes away.
Read the complete Centovalli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Centovalli, late in the day. Next is Lugano.
Lugano belongs to Switzerland by history and to Italy by temperament. It sits on the northern shore of a lake of the same name, in the canton of Ticino, with mountains, Monte San Salvatore and Monte Brè, rising straight from the water on either side. Italian is the language, the coffee is Italian, and the pace of life slows by a visible notch compared with Zurich. Ticino joined the Swiss Confederation only at the start of the nineteenth century, after centuries as subject territory of the Swiss cantons, and the town still has the atmosphere of a place with its own story.
Read the complete Lugano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Lugano. That is the ride.
Bellinzona → Locarno is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Locarno → Ascona is 3 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ascona → Centovalli is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Centovalli → Lugano is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.