Author: Will

At 2621 metres, Passo di Gavia is the 9th highest paved road in the Alps. If you enjoy history and even fairy tales: a few years ago I wrote a post on the Legends of Passo di Gavia. I was in Bormio to see my old Aussie friend Barry (Bazza!), so we headed up the north side. NOTE: If you have to choose, the south side from Ponte di Legno is definitely the more spectacular side of this great pass. From Bormio, the classic big loop is as follows: Descend down the valley to Grosio. Climb the famous side of…

Passo San Marco was a revelation for me. 26.5 kms and 1740 metres vertical ascent. Gigantic. It starts far lower than most big climbs so its summit altitude can mislead one into thinking it’s not huge. See this table for example: I had to get to Bormio to meet my old friend Barry. It’s a long drive, so I decided to stop along the way to explore something new. Passo San Marco starts from Morbegno, in Sondrio Province, roughly half way between Milan and Bormio. It’s more long than steep, although there are some tough kilometres half way up. (see…

La Barillette is the third highest paved road in the Jura mountains. It’s a dead-end to a Swisscom telecommunication tower overlooking Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Every time I road bike here I see endless trails and unpaved forestry roads and I think “one day” I should try to reach the summit on a mountain bike. When I saw that Garmin Bike Cup was holding an event here, I decided to ride the course, but alone, not as part of the event. See here for The Ten Highest Paved Climbs in the Jura Mountains – including details of the paved road…

A simple plan: cycle up Mont Salève to see the Moon rise. Sunday night met all the requirements: 1) A full moon. 2) A “moon rise” occurring soon after sunset. 3) Perfect weather. 4) My local mountain has a great lookout.

Road cyclists – don’t click away. This ride begins with a challenging 11 kilometre fully paved ride that I had never heard of. And yes, then some gravel fun to join the famous paved road between Col du Ranfolly (1658m) and Col de Joux Plane (1691m) – plus some other unpaved “detours.” A 3D video of the route: I started in Taninges after a quick visit to my favourite bench beside the old Chartreuse de Mélan monastery. From Taninges, I wanted to skip the D902 as it’s busy with fast traffic, so as the map at bottom shows (after an…

Forclaz is an old word for “narrow gap” used mainly in the two Savoies. I think I’ve cycled seven Col de la Forclaz, but the unpaved route to Col de la Forclaz (1844m) above Entremont is the toughest. It leads to the hidden Lac de Lessy behind/above Col de la Colombière. This route requires significant hiking at times, both up and down some stretches. It’s not an easy ride. It’s a pretty good 3D video of the route. The climb starts in Entremont, just above Le Petit Bornand. It’s paved for the first couple of kilometres but then becomes a…

It’s always fun to cycle extra high on a bike. Here are the twenty highest paved cycling climbs in the Alps. This list is just the Alps. It ignores, for example, the highest paved road in Europe: Pico del Veleta in the Sierra Madre mountains. Let me know if you think I’ve missed any climbs. For more in this series see: The Twenty Highest Paved Cycling Climbs in France – here. The Ten Highest Paved Cycling Climbs in Italy – here. The Twenty Highest Paved Cycling Climbs in Switzerland – here. The Ten Highest Paved Cycling Climbs in the Jura…

Woohoo, this is a great route! It has three distinct sections, all of which require thicker tires: Briancon to near Col du Lautaret on quiet trails/roads The old road on the south side up to Galibier A secret valley descent of the north side of Galibier The highlight was the ascent of Col du Galibier on the remains of the original south side road. It was replaced in 1938 by the less steeper modern road – they take completely different lines. But the entire route is excellent. 1. Briançon to Lautaret My goal was to avoid the somewhat busy/fast main…

Why do I often bring a mountain bike on big paved climbs? Col du Granon is 6th highest paved climb in France. But after reaching the summit I cycled to 5 more unpaved Cols, 4 higher than Granon. There’s another world up there. For the 20 highest paved roads in France see here. It was Col du Granon bike day so the road was closed to cars from 8am – 11am. Col du Granon (2413 metres) is a beast of a climb, with constant views of glaciers atop the peaks of the Massif des Écrins. Preparing for this ride I…

If you’ve ever cycled the north side of Col du Galibier, you may have noticed an intriguing looking gravel road high on the left. Starting from Plan Lachat (roughly 2000 metres), this is an old military road that climbs to Camp des Rochilles, a French army base that was part of the Maginot Line. This ride visits five unpaved cols (labeled on map) and three beautiful alpine lakes all above 2400 metres. This was the first ride of a three day loop. It includes something like 14 cols well above 2000 metres and most reachable only with thicker tires. This…