Rated Passes

Col du Portillon – 1,293m

  Route: D618A/N-141 Bagneres-de-Luchon to Bossost – 12 miles   Ridden: 23/07/2010   The Col du Portillon (or Puerto del Portillon) is located in the Val d’Aran, a Spanish valley that borders France and connects the French town of Bagneres-de-Luchon in the north with the Spanish town of Bossost in the south.   The [...]

Port de Bales – 1,755m

  Route: D925/D51 Bourg-d’Oueil to Mauleon-Barousse – 24 miles   Ridden: 19/07/2010   The Port de Bales (or Col de Bales) is located between the Oueil valley in the south and the Barousse valley in the north. It isn’t necessarily a pass you would ride unless you go out of your way to include [...]

Nufenen Pass (aka Passo della Novena) – 2,478m

  Route: Airolo to Ulrichen – 22.5 miles   Ridden: 21/07/2010   Either way you ride this pass it is a great ride and strongly recommended. It also has the advantage that it’s close to a number of other great passes – Furka, Grimsel, Oberalp, St Gotthard and Susten – so base yourself in [...]

Passo del San Bernardino – 2,065m

  Route: Route 13 Splugen to Mesocco – 26 miles   Ridden: 21/07/2010   From Splugen you can only follow the old road a little way before it is entirely subsumed by the new road, which you have to join. When you are past Hinterrhein take care to follow the Blue sign to “San [...]

Splugen Pass – 2,113m

  Route: SS36 Splugen to Chiavenna – 25 miles   Ridden: 21/07/2010   From the village of Splugen the pass is clearly signposted. The first stretch is a series of gentle hairpins, which lead you up to a long drag up the valley to an interminable series of very tight and sometimes blind hairpins. [...]

Klausen Pass – 1,984m

  Route: Route 17 Altdorf to Linthal – 26 miles   Ridden: 20/07/2010   From Altdorf you ride through the village of Burglen and the pass starts properly. The early sections are straightforward and flowing but before you drop into the village of Ulrichen you can look upwards and see the pass road climbing [...]

Col du Telegraphe - 1,566m

  Route: D902 St. Michel de Maurienne to Valloire – 10 miles   Ridden: 20/06/2010   A fairly non descript pass. Perhaps it was the bad weather that prevented us from getting whatever good views there were to be had on the ascent from St. Michel but it just seemed like a road that [...]

Col de la Madeleine - 1,993m

  Route: D213 Pussy to La Chambre – 27 miles   Ridden: 20/06/2010   The pass road starts close to the village of Pussy and climbs steadily up the right hand side of the valley. The road is narrow, there are a number of blind bends and the surface is patchy. However, you are [...]

Passo dell’Aprica – 1,176m

  Route: SS39 Tresenda to Edolo – 18 miles   Ridden: 17/06/2009   Not a particularly noteworthy pass, although pleasant enough to ride. Really a means to an end. From Livigno, the quickest most direct route to Brescia (Montechiari) airport takes you over this pass.   [...]

Albula Pass – 2,312m

  Route: Via Tiefencastel to La Punt Chamues – 25 miles   Ridden: 16/06/2009   Leaving Tiefencastel the road follows the valley floor and the railway past Filisur to Bergun. From Bergun the road tightens and in some places the road surface is not the best, but the scenery is very good. Adding to [...]