Best Route, Besancon->Meiringen, Switzerland

Simon W said:

There's some lovely riding south of Besancon in the Doubs region. The D67 runs along a lovely gorge (the name of which escapes me). Stay off the main roads, heading to Yvredon les Bains, then make for Gruyere, home of the cheese - you can visit the cheese factory if you like, but your time would probably be better spent going into the old village for a coffee. Then head cross country to Thun and up into the hills to take - as has already been suggested - the Panoramastrasse. In short, I'd suggest this way - which, with a bit of tinkering, can be done without a vignette.

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Hello Simon,

I'm not long back from a three week European tour (including two motoGPs) covering 5200 miles including most of the RdGA and a lot of the usual high pass suspects. Hopefully, my wife will ride her bike with me next year and as I'm not really a fan of 0º radius bends climbing mountain passes she certainly won't be! What are the chances of your magazine "Ride" (which I subscribe to) doing an article on sweeping bend roads with glorious vistas along the lines of the Route de Napoleon? Not everybody finds the north side of the Stelvio Pass fun!

TIA,

Iain

Khulu said:

Hello Simon,

What are the chances of your magazine "Ride" (which I subscribe to) doing an article on sweeping bend roads with glorious vistas along the lines of the Route de Napoleon? Not everybody finds the north side of the Stelvio Pass fun!

TIA,

Iain

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Most of the major passes have sections of more flowing stuff - but do often also have proper hairpins. The run over Col du Galibier and up La Bonnette have far more of the flowing, scrolling corners than uber-tight ones. It's possible to avoid the ones that have extended runs of tight stuff (often it's a detour to get to the really tight stuff like Alpe d'Huez or les Lacettes de Montvernier), but the more hairpins you ride, the easier they become – and when you're after views, those are always best from the top of the high passes.

Could we do a whole story on just that kind of road? It'd be a challenge - though no more so than doing a feature for a music mag entirely about intros, which I've seen done well. It's a challenge. Watch this space...

In the meantime, for a high concentration of flowing roads without many hairpins, I'd say the secret is probably to avoid the highest mountain areas. The Picos, particularly, tends to deliver that kind of riding in spades, and the Pyrenees (though also not exactly short of hairpins) do also have plenty of spectacular, flowing riding. In France you'd maybe head to the Limousin, the Auvergne and the Cevennes rather than into the Alps.

Simon W said:

Most of the major passes have sections of more flowing stuff - but do often also have proper hairpins. The run over Col du Galibier and up La Bonnette have far more of the flowing, scrolling corners than uber-tight ones. It's possible to avoid the ones that have extended runs of tight stuff (often it's a detour to get to the really tight stuff like Alpe d'Huez or les Lacettes de Montvernier), but the more hairpins you ride, the easier they become – and when you're after views, those are always best from the top of the high passes.

Could we do a whole story on just that kind of road? It'd be a challenge - though no more so than doing a feature for a music mag entirely about intros, which I've seen done well. It's a challenge. Watch this space...

In the meantime, for a high concentration of flowing roads without many hairpins, I'd say the secret is probably to avoid the highest mountain areas. The Picos, particularly, tends to deliver that kind of riding in spades, and the Pyrenees (though also not exactly short of hairpins) do also have plenty of spectacular, flowing riding. In France you'd maybe head to the Limousin, the Auvergne and the Cevennes rather than into the Alps.

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Thanks for the reply Simon.

You are correct in that to get great views and gain access to beautiful valleys you have to endure some twisty rises and falls (I've done a fair load recently and they were all worth it).

I'm already thinking about Pyrenees / Andorra for next year en route to the Austrian motoGP, again (incase my wife decides not to ride).
Limousin is a good suggestion and Auvergne would fit in with Route de Napoleon. Cevennes is another good suggestion in the Millau area.
I could include all these and then head to the Harz mountains en route to Austria.

Many thanks for your suggestions Simon,

Iain

A Map will give you a good idea of how tight the hairpins are and how many there are, google street view can be handy to see the surface if that is also a concern, the weather I am afraid is still one of those horribly un-predictable parts of an Adventure.

I think too many folk take the Motorway to the Stelvio, ride over it and then think all Alpine roads are the same.

Most of RDGA is pretty good with regard to "horrible" hairpins (I know plenty of folk who love them, the tighter and bumpier the better is some peoples view) in Switzerland the Susten, Oberalp, Fluella, Bernina and Julier are all pretty decent flowing roads with just a few wide and well surfaced hairpins dotted around (IIRC - not guaranteed at my age)

I can tell you to avoid the Splugen - but would highly advise everyone else rides this once for the views and to appreciate the engineering feat of putting a road up a vertical cliff.

Austria also has a lot of flowing passes and (again IIRC) the parts further East have a lot of flowing roads.

You may also want to avoid the Dolomites if you do not like tight bends, although the region has fantastically surfaced twisties with passes packed closer together than anywhere else

Been, returned and survived.

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