Serra Morena

Piedmont

101km ↔️

1 day 📅

54% unpaved 🚵‍♂️

1490m D+ ↗️

1490m D- ↘️

800m asl ⛰

🗺 Ivrea (TO)

📅 February – November

Activities

🔎 Overview

Starting from Ivrea, town that you can reach by train, make sure to have an energising breakfast as we directly start uphill 😅 through the various small lakes on the mounts of Ivrea.

Pay attention as towards the last lake there is a rocky section where you might want to walk your bike as the rocks are kinda sharp.

We gradually exit the lakes area to enter some beautiful woods and continue uphill towards the top of the Serra Morena. The Serra Morena is what remains today of the huge glacier that descended from the Aosta valley into Piedmont, leaving as a trace two huge “walls” on its side that are proper “flat-like mountains (it is the earth that the ice moved to the side while pushing down). Beautiful sights on the valley await you and your efforts (and sweat) will be rewarded.

Through a downhill in the woods we reach small villages before entering in the Bessa Natural Reserve (gold mining area where the ancient roman used to come looking for richness). The Bessa is stunning but harsh, you will have to walk your bike a couple of times because of the huge rounded rocks but the feeling of cycling in an ancient gold area is amazing.

Don’t worry, out of the Serra Morena and of the Bessa you will still find a couple of ancient roman roads, easier to cycle on too 😉

The way back to Ivrea is surrounded by water (lakes a river and a canal) and really fast, so don’t worry, the uphill is finished  ⛰🚲🥳

👀 Our advices

This tour is particularly demanding on certain bits, it could be done in one day if are technically expert and physically trained, otherwise it should be splitted in two days.

Both the Bessa and the Serra Morena natural parks have sections with big rocks on the ground, as you can see in the pictures, thus 50mm wide tires are recommended. 

📸 Points of interest

Ivrea

Lakes of  Ivrea
—and their surroundings

Dora Baltea river

Ivrea’s serra Morena

Bessa Natural Reserve
—ancient roman gold mining site

Lake Viverone

High speed gravelly section along the naviglio

Naviglio di Ivrea

Photo Gallery

Developed by: Ian