Allgäu Triathlon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The swim is 1.9 kilometres in the Großer Alpsee. From the exit it is around 750 metres to the first transition zone, an unusually long stretch on foot that deserves its own place in your race plan.

The 92 bike kilometres are two laps of the same roughly 46-kilometre loop, so every feature of the course arrives twice. After a good two kilometres comes the first short pitch of 830 metres at 7.2 percent average with ramps to twelve. The real test follows at kilometre 16: a 3.65-kilometre climb averaging 6.5 percent with peaks near eleven and 237 metres of gain, topping out at a good 945 metres. Later, at kilometre 40, a 1.3-kilometre rise at just under five percent. Across both laps the bike leg totals around 1,230 metres of climbing, and only a third of its kilometres are flat.

The closing 20-kilometre run is tame by comparison. It stays within a narrow band between 726 and 753 metres, a good 60 percent of it is flat and it adds up to only 117 metres of gain. Its one genuine interruption is a short, steep 350-metre ramp at 7.6 percent just before kilometre 15, precisely where the legs think least of it after 92 undulating bike kilometres. The run into the second transition is short, around 150 metres.

Pacing Strategy

The day is decided on the second bike lap, not the first. Swim the 1.9 kilometres under control and use the long walk into transition deliberately to bring your heart rate down rather than rushing it.

On the bike the decisive passage is the 3.65-kilometre climb at kilometre 16 and again at kilometre 62. It lasts 15 to 25 minutes depending on your level, and because it comes twice it is the course's most expensive mistake: ride it in race mode rather than at upper threshold the first time and you lose the second lap and half the run. Cap your power there deliberately and use the long descent that follows actively to keep the legs turning.

The main trap waits afterwards. Two thirds of the 20-kilometre run is flat, and after the undulating bike that terrain feels surprisingly easy at first. That is exactly why many run the opening five kilometres far too fast and find out what it cost at the short 7.6 percent ramp just before kilometre 15. Set a hard pace ceiling for the first half of the run and keep that ramp in mind as your checkpoint.

Training plan for Allgäu Triathlon: 12-week build

For the Allgäu CLASSIC, expect roughly five and a half to eight hours of racing depending on your level. The organiser's cut-offs (1:05 for the swim, 4:30 for the bike, 3:15 for the run) set the outer frame.

The demand splits in two, and that is what makes it hard: on the bike it is an undulating, repeatedly interrupted endurance effort with two long climbs and several short ramps, followed by an almost flat half-marathon-length run where nothing structures your rhythm any more. Train only one of the two and you fold in the other.

The race is decided on the second pass of the 3.65-kilometre climb and in the second half of the run. That is where you find out whether you rode with discipline and whether your aerobic base carries an effort of this length.

So build around long rides with back-loaded climbing; four to five hours with the hardest vertical metres in the final hour mirror this race exactly. Add threshold blocks of 15 to 25 minutes on genuine climbs, because that is precisely the duration the key ascent demands. For the run, long brick sessions of 60 to 90 minutes off those rides are the single most important piece, plus tempo runs at target half-marathon pace on flat ground. Open-water sessions over the full distance and practice with a long transition walk round out the preparation.