Italy / France · Western Alps · Premium route guide
Colle delle Finestre → Mont-Cenis → Lanslebourg
94 kilometres, one big unpaved col at 2,178 m, and a border-hopping traverse between the Italian Cottian Alps and the French Haute-Maurienne. Adventure-bike day. Full route on the map, a GPX for your GPS, and the motorcycle-friendly stays other riders have vetted at either end.
- Distance
- 94.2 km
- Peak elevation
- 2,171 m
- Elevation gain
- 3,064 m
- Best months
- Jun–Oct
The route
Villaretto in Val Chisone up the SP172 to the Colle delle Finestre (2,178 m), with its famous 8 km unpaved top section. Down the north side to Meana di Susa and Susa, then up through Novalesa and Moncenisio to the Lac du Mont-Cenis and across the border to Lanslebourg. Pins are motorcycle-friendly stays other riders have vetted at either end.
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Works with Garmin, TomTom, BMW Navigator, Calimoto, Kurviger, komoot, MyRouteApp. Import as a track to ride the exact line. Road data from OpenStreetMap (ODbL); elevation from SRTM.
Track vs. route — how to load this into your GPS
What you're downloading is a GPX track — a dense, road-snapped breadcrumb of the exact line, with elevation on every point. It's not a GPX route (a short list of turn waypoints your device re-plans between). Tracks preserve our road choice; routes let the device pick its own way and can send you down a boring motorway shortcut.
How to use it on your navigator:
- BMW Navigator / Garmin Zumo / zūmo XT: import as a track, then Convert to Route (or Trip Planner → new trip from track) if you want turn-by-turn prompts. Keep Recalculation off so it stays on our line.
- TomTom Rider: import the GPX in MyDrive — it loads as a track / itinerary. Enable Follow the exact route so it doesn't re-plan.
- Calimoto: open the GPX and choose Import as tour — Calimoto follows the track line.
- Kurviger / komoot / MyRouteApp: open the GPX and pick Import as track to keep the road choice. Only choose Import as route if you want the app to re-plan for your bike profile.
- Google Maps / Apple Maps: these don't read GPX. Use the map on this page for turn cues, or import the file into a GPX-capable app first.
Rule of thumb: if your device asks "track or route?", pick track to ride our exact line — pick route only if you want the device to re-plan.
Elevation profile
From ~485 m at the base to 2171 m at the top — 3,064 m of total climbing across the route.
This one's for adventure bikes and dual-sports. The Finestre is a Giro d'Italia legend for a reason — 18 km of tight paved hairpins on the south side, then 8 km of well-graded gravel over the summit and down. Not technical if it's dry, but sketchy if it's been raining. Then a fast paved second half over Mont-Cenis to France.
The road, honestly
The south side of the Finestre from Fenestrelle is 18 km of very tight hairpins on good tarmac — narrow but well surfaced. Around the two-thirds mark the tarmac ends and the last 8 km to the summit are unpaved. In dry weather it's easily rideable on an adventure bike or dual-sport with knobbly-ish tyres; a sports tourer will struggle. Wet weather makes the top section a mudslide — check the forecast.
The Mont-Cenis section is the reward: smooth tarmac past a huge turquoise reservoir with the ring of alps around it, then over the border at 2,000 m and down into Lanslebourg. Traffic is light.
Base at either end
Susa on the Italian side is a mid-loop pivot — Roman old town, good food, cheap accommodation. Lanslebourg (or Lanslevillard next door) at the French end is the classic Haute-Maurienne base and puts you close to the Iseran for the following day.
Weather and fuel
The Finestre is closed in winter and typically opens in early June. The gravel top can stay muddy well into July after a wet spring. The Mont-Cenis road opens earlier (May) and closes in November.
Fuel in Fenestrelle, Susa and Lanslebourg. Nothing on the passes.
What to see along the way
- Fenestrelle fort — Enormous 18th-century Alpine fortress with a 4 km covered staircase. The largest fort in Europe by area.
- Colle delle Finestre (2,178 m) — Summit is a wide grassy saddle with a small monument. Where the gravel ends and the tarmac begins on the north side.
- Susa — Roman-era town with a preserved arch, aqueduct and cathedral. Good lunch stop.
- Novalesa Abbey — 8th-century Benedictine monastery just off the road on the climb to Mont-Cenis. Free to visit the church.
- Lac du Mont-Cenis — Enormous turquoise reservoir at 1,970 m. Small chapel on a peninsula, mountain restaurants around the shore.
Rent a bike
Rent a motorcycle or scooter for Colle delle Finestre → Mont-Cenis → Lanslebourg
Flying in? Pick up a bike near the start of the route. We've pre-filled the pick-up city with Susa / Lanslebourg — change it if you're basing elsewhere.
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Rider-verified stays within 30 km
Automatically selected by proximity to the traced route — no editorial cherry-picking. Sorted by how close they are to the road.
- 14.8 km
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