It wasn’t all fun and games on our trip last week. Before getting to Lake Como for Il Lombardia, we spent a few days driving and cycling madly through the Swiss Alps…well, mostly driving – I’d love to ride a whole tour beforehand, but sadly that would eat up any meager profit I might make on the actual tour.

Anyway, this new tour is part of 44|5’s new Project Trans-Alps, which will be a series of one-week bike tours that, when linked together, will cross the entire Alps mountain range. I’ve run tours through the French Alps many times, so a good portion of Project Trans-Alps is already done, but this will be our first foray into Switzerland for any meaningful length of time. There are surprisingly few companies running tours through the high mountains of Switzerland, which is a little strange, given the epic mountain roads they have. It must be the cost, which increases our normal tour pricing by 50% or more.

HighRoad Swiss Alps will begin on Lake Geneva in the lovely little city of Vevey, famed as the final home of Charlie Chaplin and, perhaps a little infamously, as the headquarters of Nestle. It’s a great place to start a tour, with a lovely little shake-out ride through the lakeside vineyards.

Our first proper day on the bike will take us to Spiez, in the German-speaking part of the country. This little town is on another lake, just a few kilometers from touristy Interlaken. It also happens to be near the foot of one of the prettiest little mountain loops in the Alps – Grosse Scheidegg. This one is actually partially car free, which will present some logistical fun for our van(s), but will be heaven for the riders.

After a couple of nights in Spiez, we get into the really big stuff. In 3 days we’ll cross 6 high passes, including the famous Furka/Nufenen/Gotthard loop – something that you really need to get over and at least drive. It’s astoundingly beautiful. We’ll do most of this from our base in Andermatt.

Fittingly, we descend out of the high Alps to yet another lake – Lago Maggiore – and Locarno, in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland.

And that’s just the riding. Don’t get me started on the quality of the food and hotels. We have 6 riders confirmed for HighRoad Swiss Alps at the moment. If you’d like a full itinerary, email me at gerry@445cyclingtours.com