• Distance 23.8km (14.8mi)
• Duration 0h:28m
• Route Type *mountains*

Col des Aravis- Canyon Ride 4.0/5

location

	START	FINISH
Adress	159 Rue des Fauvettes, 74800 Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes	139 Place du Pré de Foire, 74220 La Clusaz, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes
Latitude	46.07332	45.90443
Longitude	6.3951	6.42337

description

An true alpine ride only 10 minutes from Geneva. Starting off in Bonneville you wind your way through a beautiful canyon with almost perfectly sculpted corners running all the way up to the top. Once you break out of the canyon, the road opens up with a series of sweepers and straights all the best online casino way up to La Clusaz. This is a very popular ride for Geneva riders and can carry some heavy traffic during peak hours. If you can ride it early or late in the day, you will usually be gifted with a unobstructed ride. We rate this an easy route.

 

May 2014- they are working on the bottom 5km of this road with a diversion up a one lane road

• Distance 71.9km (44.7mi)
• Duration 1h:05m
• Route Type *mountains*
• This road may be seasonally closed

Great St. Bernard Pass 4.1/5

location

	START	FINISH
Adress	Rue Principale 27, 1921 Martigny-Combe, Switzerland CountrySwitzerland Administrative AreaValais	Galleria Signayes, 11100 Aosta, Valle D'aosta, Italy CountryItaly Administrative AreaAosta
Latitude	45.76087	46.08357
Longitude	7.31433	7.05405

description

One of the most famous passes in the world and the 3rd highest in Switzerland at 2469 meters. It is closed for most year, usually opens mid June and closes in October.

Great St. Bernard is the oldest pass through the Western Alps, with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze Age and surviving traces of a Roman road. In 1800, Napoleon's army used the pass to enter Italy, an event depicted in Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass and Hippolyte Delaroche's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps, both notable oil paintings.

The pass can be ridden either way, but for purposes of this listing we are riding south towards Italy. The first 40km carries a fair amount of traffic up to the Great St. Bernard tunnel. The road is in good condition and has many passing lanes- so if you are on a bike you can still make good time and have a pleasant ride. From Martigny, the road follows a river canyon- most of the corners are wide and flowing. About half way you can make a side trip to Verbier if your skiing inclined. After the Verbier turnoff, you start to come out of the canyon and start the climb for real with some beautiful wide turns and superlative views. About 10k up from the Verbier turnoff the road becomes covered, just before this are about 3 petrol stations, tank up here as fuel is generally 20% less in Switzerland.

The covered road continues into the tunnel and the last exit is for the Great St. Bernard, don’t miss it or you will suffer a dreary and expensive journey though a very long tunnel. You emerge from the covered road into what you hope is bright mountain sunlight and a clear pass. From this point the road becomes far more narrow, the surface challenged, and the corners are quite tight- but what a road....

The summit has several buildings, the most famous is the hospice used by travellers using the pass for centuries. There is a nice little lake up at the top and some great views. If it is really clear and you are up for a bit of scrambling one of the best views in the world is only 30 minutes up- (warning- only for the fit, not vertically challenged and ambitious). Park at the top, where the St Bernard kennels are- walk behind them and up the mountain behind them- there are remnants of an old ski lift that you can follow for the 1st half of the walk- after that, your on your own, but then paths are marked there are cables to help you get to the top. Once there the Vista of the Mt Blanc massive is as good as it gets.

OK, back on the road. For some reason the Italian ramp is in much condition the Swiss side- they have been working on it for the last 10 years (and still are), so I guess it should be. The road above tree line is generally very good in all respects. Once you hit the tree line, they still be working on the road, but on a bike you advance to the front of the line at the lights.

You rejoin the main road form the tunnel just below Saint Leonard, from here the traffic is back, but there is some good passing available all the way down to Aosta.

Fun fact- the original Italian job opening sequence was filmed going up the Italian ramp, yes the one with the Lamborghini Miura.

• Distance 10.2km (6.3mi)
• Duration 0h:13m
• Route Type *mountains*

Col des Aravis Summit ride- D909 4.0/5

location

	START	FINISH
Adress	Route d'Annecy, 74450 Saint-Jean-de-Sixt, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes	7548 Route du Col des Aravis, 74220 La Clusaz, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes
Latitude	45.92269	45.8723
Longitude	6.41113	6.46486

description

This the ride to Col des Aravis is just fantastic. As you leave La Clusaz the road open up into series of beautifully formed corners.

Once at the summit, there a few restaurants to stop and have a coffee or lunch and take in the fine view. From the summit you can either continue to on to Flumet, or you can head back down to Saint-Jean-de-Sixt and take Col de la Colombiere back down to the flatland.

This is a very popular ride for Geneva riders and can carry some heavy traffic during peak hours. If you can ride it early or late in the day, you will usually be gifted with a unobstructed ride.

We rate this an easy route.

• Distance 84.2km (52.3mi)
• Duration 1h:30m
• Route Type *mountains*
• This road may be seasonally closed

Petit St Bernard pass/ Piccolo St Bernardo SS26.N90 4.3/5

location

	START	FINISH
Adress	1-37 Place Marcel Gaimard, 73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes	Viale Partigiani, 1-11, 11100 Aosta, Italy CountryItaly Administrative AreaAosta
Latitude	45.61868	45.73496
Longitude	6.76941	7.3131100000001

description

The "Little Saint Bernard Pass" can be divided into 2 halves: The French side: Starts out in a set of hairpins then into the woods with lots of twisties. There are great views over the valley to the Colde l'Iseran. The hairpins are wide-ish and not too steep. The Italian Side: A better surface, steeper and there's a narrow section in the trees where overtaking is difficult. Then the long fast section to Aosta whichwould be quite nice were it not for the gravel pits, towns, electricity pylons..... At the top of the pass is the French border and a large statue of St Bernard which disappointingly was not a large alcoholic dog. The surface all the way is very good. Bourg St. Maurice is fairly uninteresting, but has a useful supermarket and petrol.

• Distance 70.6km (43.9mi)
• Duration 1h:40m
• Route Type *mountains*
• This road may be seasonally closed

Flumet - Cormet de Roseland - Bourg St. Maurice - D925 3.7/5

location

	START	FINISH
Adress	Rue des Aravis, 73590 Flumet, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes	1-37 Place Marcel Gaimard, 73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France CountryFrance Administrative AreaRhone-Alpes
Latitude	45.81933	45.61868
Longitude	6.51623	6.76941

description

This used to be very bumpy and narrow and I rated it one of the hardest stretches I've ever done. Nearly all of it has now been remade (2003/2004), partly widened and resurfaced, especially the previously awful eastern drop down into Bourg which for me makes it the number 2 in this area. The first section from Flumet is relatively easy, climbing up on wide gentle hairpins and a superb sufrface with some potential knee-down stretches, especially the section before the Lac du Rosseland and just past it to the top of the pass..
The east side if the pass starts (from the top) pretty nicely, but after a few kilometres where the road drops over the head of a glaciated valley and you can be greeted with a fantastic view of Mont Blanc if you're lucky. The bottom section used to be awful, but has been widened and flattened at the hairpins and almost totally resurfaced. It runs through thick woods and eventually levels out down to Bourg St. Maurice.

• Distance 11.9km (7.4mi)
• Duration 0h:21m
• Route Type *rural*

Above Lausanne avoiding the autoroute 3.7/5

location

	START	FINISH
Adress	Route du Signal 44, 1091 Grandvaux, Switzerland CountrySwitzerland Administrative AreaVaud	Route de Bellevue 1, 1803 Chardonne, Switzerland CountrySwitzerland Administrative AreaVaud
Latitude	46.50532	46.47691
Longitude	6.71522	6.83411

description

Nice little route that runs parallel with the motorway, but gives much more pleasure.

User reviews

This is a long but manageable 1 day ride.

Overall

4.0

Reviewed by Patrick February 26, 2014
#1 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (15)

This is a long but manageable 1 day ride.

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