I’ve read a few reports and blogs on riding the GR5 from Geneva to Nice, including one thread on here from 4/5 years ago. It looked ace. However, I’m looking at heading the other way, north from Geneva. I’m trying to end up in Germany just north of Basel, and the GR5 to Thann and then roads/tracks east to the border looked a reasonable route. What I don’t know is:

– How is this section of the GR5 to ride?
– Are there any bits of this section you’re not allowed to ride?
– Is south-north on the route much different to north-south (it might end up as a there and back, not sure yet)?
– What sort of mileage do people manage in a day (how long is a piece of string, but I’ll be bike packing and mostly wild camping, happy to do long days/some nights, and have done some long distance stuff like winning a 24hr solo race and completing events like the AZT300 etc)?
– Is there a better MTB route taking me North from Geneva to Basel? I’m imagining a direct, way marked trail with GPS route, of nearly all flowing single-track and with little or no hike-a-bike, but realise this is slightly optimistic 🙂

Feel free to post amazing pics of past trips alongside any advice!

Thanks…

How is this section of the GR5 to ride?

Can’t say from experience but based on what we found just south of Geneva it’s probably HAB-heavy. Hard going. Do some google-earth research or look on wikiloc etc, we decided the GR5 Geneva-Nice was a good guide to a ride direction but not always the best trails to ride. We went off-route fairly often. Overall a great ride though, just be be prepared to carry / push as needed.

Before planning this trip we looked at many other alpine and European routes – this area was one of them, although we were looking at not going all the way to Basel and looping on to Zurich.

My research showed that is as tough going as the other bits, but mainly due to how infrequently it’s walked – the section south of geneva is pretty well trodden but steep, and I think it’s not as steep but think it was referred to as a goat track width. I will admit that I think I only found one slightly unreliable source (from a french walking forum I think?) and not from a MTB perspective.

I seem to remember that there was a nicer route in Switzerland made up of the swiss local/regional ATB/MTB routes, but needed a bit of piecing together, my desktop died at the weekend with all the maps on it so can’t help with gpx files 🙁 Without looking, I think it went north of lake Neuchatel then to Beil

No idea about the French side.
Swiss Jura (at least the bits I’ve been to on bike and for other reasons), is what I call very hilly but not mountains. Lots of farmland and forest on plateaus at around 1000-1200m, and the MTB bike routes I’ve picked from the Swiss MTB map site were easily rideable by CX bike.
That’s mostly on the plateau above Neuchatel, and somewhere a bit further north, whose name escapes me.

http://www.mountainbikeland.ch/en/mountainbiking-in-switzerland.html

http://www.mountainbikeland.ch/en/routes/route-03.html ?

edit: and my experience is that waymarking is superb.

Thanks all! It has to be roughly this route (or basically any route from Geneva to near Basel) as I need to get between those two places as start and end destinations. (And possibly end and start if it ends up being a return trip too).

James – yeah, I read your report on the old STW thread on this. Using gr-infos.com, it looks mellower than the south side of Geneva – usually around half or less the elevation gained per equivalent distance section, and peaking at 1400m instead of 2500m or so. I wonder if that lends itself to less HAB, or if there are still steep pitches and just lower peaks. How did you do your going off trail – preplanned with lots of research, or on the ground decisions?

Oliver – I’ll have a read through your trip writeup, thanks! Lots of info on Geneva to Nice out there, little heading the other way. I wonder if the not so steep but goat trail nature means flowing single track all the way or impossible to ride trails up and down hillsides?! When you said as tough going did you mean in terms of the trails being less good condition so harder to ride, or the facilities being less good/frequent, or something else? If you get a chance to resurrect the desktop, I’d be very interested in those details. If not, where did you look for info on these, and was it a known route or one you were working on to link shorter routes together?

Andy – Hmmm that Jura route is a possibility if it looks like I need to minimise time. As you say, it sounds more like a CX/rough tour route with about 50% surfaced and <10% singletrack. I need to somehow hybridise this and the GR5 to get something in the middle in terms of elevation and difficulty I think! Do you know if you can get GPS files from that site, I couldn’t see them?

Don’t recall what I did for GPX. Might have mapped it out on gmap-pedometer or something. Pretty sure I have downloaded GPXes though.
Might have to find some pics. Certainly nothing was particularly rad along the signed paths that I’ve followed. Nor have any of the paths had any major elevation change, even though you’re at 1200m (unless of course you need to ride up from say Neuchatel, Biel/Bienne, etc. and then it’s a good old winch). The graphic icon of the MTBer on the MTB signposts is usually more rad than the path where it points.

How did you do your going off trail – preplanned with lots of research, or on the ground decisions?

IGN hiking maps and taking routes that looked interesting as we passed them, no real research in advance apart from that thread and a GR5 guidebook. Generally any ‘VTT’ signposted trail is worth a go and the GR route could be judged on contour line density – anything much beyond 10% uphill isn’t likely to be rideable for long.
If elevation per km is lower to the north of the lake it should be OK, many sections of GR are great bike routes. It’s just where it gets steep uphill it’s tricky. Have a look on wikiloc if you’ve not already, it’s a goldmine for Euro trail finding tips.

Oliver – I’ll have a read through your trip writeup, thanks! Lots of info on Geneva to Nice out there, little heading the other way. I wonder if the not so steep but goat trail nature means flowing single track all the way or impossible to ride trails up and down hillsides?! When you said as tough going did you mean in terms of the trails being less good condition so harder to ride, or the facilities being less good/frequent, or something else? If you get a chance to resurrect the desktop, I’d be very interested in those details. If not, where did you look for info on these, and was it a known route or one you were working on to link shorter routes together?

Yeah the route south is easy to plan. The sections straight after Geneva going south was the hardest part we did (you’ll see if you read the writeup but it’s effing steep and not well built) once you are south of samoens it gets a little less unrideable. No idea what the north of Geneva section is like, my only basis of what I said was from a Google translation of a French forum post. I took goat track as very small and likely too small to ride with kit

Chances of recovering the desktop are slim as I’ve got all the files it claims that exist by booting from USB Ubuntu and there’s lots of corruption…

Almost all my Swiss route planning is from the Swiss bike website – Google it as it shows all the signposted mtb and road routes in Switzerland

Had a little google and got carried away looking at planning next years trip, it seems Jura bike route would do you route – 50% unsurfaced and 10% singletrack so not too hard either.