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 184 km loop that starts and ends near Merano, about 3 h 03 of riding. On the way it passes Passo Giovo, Vipiteno and Timmelsjoch. The highest point is about 2,450 m. Passo Giovo and Timmelsjoch are open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
This part of the ride is 42 km of Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
This part of the ride is 54 km of Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road.
Merano has a climate that surprises people. Sheltered by high mountains on three sides, it has mild winters and warm summers, and palm trees, cypresses and even a few vines grow in the town, which sits at about three hundred metres where the Passer river joins the Adige.
Read the complete Merano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Merano is where the day begins. Next is Passo Giovo.
The Jaufenpass, which Italians call Passo Giovo, is a good road that gets very little attention because the roads next to it are so famous. It crosses the ridge between the Sterzing basin and the Passeier valley at 2,094 metres, and it does so with no tolls, no crowds and no fuss. The road climbs from Vipiteno through dark spruce forest, with a clean surface and bends that keep coming, and then emerges above the tree line into open pasture and rock. At the top there is a small restaurant and a car park, and the view down the other side is long and green, with the Texel group of mountains standing in the distance.
Read the complete Passo Giovo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Passo Giovo comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vipiteno, mostly downhill.
Vipiteno, called Sterzing in German, is a small walled town that has been collecting travellers for a very long time. It stands on the old route over the Brenner, where the road from the Eisack valley opens out into a broad basin before climbing to the pass, and it grew rich on trade and, in the late Middle Ages, on silver mining in the surrounding hills. The result is a main street that looks like a film set, with a long, curving line of arcaded houses in pastel colours, oriel windows, wrought-iron signs and, at one end, the Zwölferturm, a tall tower from the late fifteenth century that is the town's emblem.
Read the complete Vipiteno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Vipiteno. Next is Timmelsjoch.
Timmelsjoch, at 2,474 metres, is a border pass between Austria and Italy, linking the Ötztal valley with the Passeier valley, and it is one of the great high Alpine roads. The Italians call it Passo del Rombo. It opened in 1968 as a toll road, built partly to connect the two sides of the old Tyrol, which had been divided after the First World War, and it remains a toll road today, with a charge for motorbikes collected on the Austrian side.
Read the complete Timmelsjoch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Timmelsjoch, late in the day at 2474 m. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Merano, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Merano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Merano. That is the ride.
Merano → Passo Giovo is 42 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Passo Giovo → Vipiteno is 18 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Vipiteno → Timmelsjoch is 69 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Timmelsjoch → Merano is 54 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.