RIDE YOUR DREAM ROAD
Make 2020 the year you ride at least one of the world’s greatest roads…
Nine of the World’s best strips of tarmac. Free fun never looked so good.
1 GC200, Gran Canaria Canary Islands
Remember that awesome scene from Jurassic Park as the helicopter approaches the island? That’s what the west coast of Gran Canaria looks like, except without the jungle… or dinosaurs. Make sure you ride the GC200. It’s a tight, dangerous road that cuts south from Agaete along the coast, then inland into Wild West-style scenery. Temporarily closed in 2016 by a 300-tonne rock fall, it’s been re-opened with a lovely new coat of tarmac.
2 Route 63, Trollstigen Norway
Calling the view from the Trollstigen viewing platform a ‘valley’ would be like describing the Grand Canyon as a gulley. You don’t really get the feeling of scale. A better description would be… a huge otherworldly half-pipe, filled from the bottom with thick tree cover that peters out half-way up as the soil runs out and the black stone mountains take over. Route 63 switchbacks its way into this ‘valley’ and then gets on with the business of providing a dream ride for the next 1200 miles to Nordkapp.
3 AL3102, Andalucia Spain
There’s one thing the Spanish do even better than paella, sangria and brandy… and that’s tarmac. Need convincing? Ride the gobsmacking corners of possibly Spain’s best road: the AL3102 between Velefique and Bacares. It whipcracks 32 times between either side of a steep valley, climbing relentlessly to the Mirador del Pedregal lookout. And when you’ve tired of riding the AL3102, pop down the road to Circuito de Almeria to experience one of the best motorcycle tracks Europe has to offer. Not a bad way to spend a day on a motorcycle.
4 SS38, Stelvio Pass Switzerland
If you lived in the small Italian town of Gomagoi, you’d have access to the world’s coolest fitness club. You’d climb a mile to arrive, puffing and steaming outside Hotel Passo Stelvio, where the trainer would look you over and send you back down the 44 strenuous hairpins for another go. The Stelvio peaks at 2757 metres above sea level – that’s over two kilometres higher than junction 22 on the M62. And from the UK it may be quicker to reach the top via Switzerland’s Umbrail Pass, but that would be cheating in the eyes of the Gomagoi fitness club and their trainer.
5 TT Mountain Isle of Man
There’s nothing crazier than a ride over the Mountain on Mad Sunday. That’s the Sunday before race week when the heaving masses of motorcyclists on the Isle of Man get to ride the Mountain one-way. Be there in 2020: Madness is scheduled for 7 June. Or go outside TT week. There’s less traffic off-season, and the Mountain section still has no upper speed limit. It’s easily worth the £108 punt on a return ferry in Spring.
6 Tizi N’test Pass Morocco
My experience of Moroccan mountain passes involves being chased by two locals who were trying to sell me marijuana out of their car window at 50mph. Now that doesn’t happen on the Bedford bypass. If you look past the mobile hash shops, though, the High Atlas Mountains that separate Morocco’s coastline from the ever-expanding Sahara Desert are absolutely beautiful. Ride through them on two passes: the Tizi n’tichka and the Tizi n’test. The Test just pips it as the longer and more technical of the two.
7 Ballaghbeama Gap, Co. Kerry Ireland
Land of dragons, jedi, and the odd local, Ireland hoards its best bits on its Atlantic west coast. It’s a great destination for smallcapacity machines – the best roads are the tightest and windiest, and there ain’t a long French motorway in sight. Take Ballaghbeama Gap, the Gap of Dunloe, and the nearby Healy Pass. The tiny roads pick their way so carefully between crags and lakes it’s like they’re creeping around a Monty Python film set… with the vicious white rabbit’s lair just round the corner.
Blow off that summer date with the Alps to ride the Croatian coastline instead. Hop between islands, nip inland on roads like Route 39 to the Bosnian border, and keep to the coast road for superb riding. Do not miss the E65 south of Karlobag. Feeling adventurous? Ride further south, through Montenegro and Albania to the Greek border. Wherever you are on the coast road, you’ll be able to watch the sea gobble up the sinking red sun night after glorious night.
9 North Coast 500 Scotland
The ‘official’ NC500 has been knocking around since 2015, but the Scottish roads it connects together have been pulling motorcycling magic out of a hat for bloomin’ ages. Certainly little can match the magnificence, excitement, and continuous high quality you get when riding its wild Western panoramas. Explore inland into what the creator of the NC500 calls MAMBA country – ‘miles and miles of bugger all’. In this day and age that sounds just fine to us.