Great St Bernard Pass Cycle Route

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Cycling the Great St Bernard Pass

Colle del Gran San Bernardo

  • Great St Bernard Pass Cycle Route

    A beautiful road climb in the Italian mountains, that weaves its way between Italy & Switzerland

Images on this page by Rowan Manning

The Great St Bernard Pass, known in Italy as the Colle del Gran San Bernardo is a cycling route that looks a every inch a classic cycling route, linking Italy with Switzerland and is a road cycling climb in the Italian mountains that is set to test the very best cyclists. This awesome Italian road cycling pass is a route that all cyclists should ride, because cycling any Italian Passes is a trip of a lifetime and the Great St Bernard Pass road cycling route has to be on your top list of roads to ride.

Climbing the Great St Bernard Pass, the Colle del Gran San Bernardo – A classic Italian road cycling route

The Great St Bernard Pass, known in Italy as the Colle del Gran San Bernardo is an iconic road cycling route in Italy, and one of the most beautiful of Italian cycling routes. The road twists its way to the summit, testing every cyclist whilst providing awesome mountain views to drive you onwards and upwards to the summit.

Distance and Ascent: 70.3km and 1988 metres of ascent

Refreshments: Cafe possible at 12km and a cafe available at the summit.

Route

  1. Start from the mountain town of Aosta and follow signs to Switzerland – seriously.
  2. Take the SS27 road that climbs into the mountains, signed towards ‘Etroubles’, reaching this after 16km of cycling and climbing.
  3. At 28km some serious switchbacks begin and the opportunity for a coffee does arise at 31km if you cannot make it to the top without caffiene.
  4. At 34.5km the top is reached, with views of the lake and ample refreshments available, before you descend with care back to Italy.

An alternative, is to continue into Switzerland and overnight at Martigny before cycling back over. The choice is yours, but either way, it’s an epic ride.

Please take sufficient tools, spare tubes and cold weather clothing, as the higher roads will be cold and descending will be coller than climbing!  😉

Click below for GPX files

Great St Bernard Pass

Great St Bernard Pass Cue Card

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