Alpentour Schladming Dachstein Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The opening stage of the Alpentour Schladming Dachstein is built as a loop: start and finish sit at around 750 metres, and the climbing tallies up almost exactly what the descending gives back — the route closes out close to elevation-neutral. In between lies one of the most unsettled opening sections in the whole race: at kilometres 3.08, 4.8 and 8.78, three short category-4 ramps arrive before any race rhythm has settled.

After a calmer stretch, the stage's centrepiece begins at kilometre 21.8: a category-2 climb of just over seven kilometres that carries riders up toward the route's high point at around 1,824 metres — up to the Hauser Kaibling, the mountain that gives the stage its name. Anyone who thinks the work is done there is mistaken: after the descent, four more categorised climbs follow at kilometres 29.58, 33.9, 37.33 and 49.78, three of them category 3, stretching deep into the closing kilometres.

The course runs through the wooded alpine terrain of the Schladming mountains — UCI S1 classified, like the rest of the Alpentour — and with close to 39 percent of the distance on steep gradients in either direction, its character sits closer to a sawtooth profile than to a single big summit finish.

Pacing Strategy

The race is decided on the climb to the Hauser Kaibling from kilometre 21.8: just over seven kilometres of second-category climbing, the day's first genuinely long sustained effort, and the point where the front group first sorts itself out.

The trap, though, sits after that climb, not before it. Unlike stages built around one summit finish, the work on this stage doesn't end with the descent off the Hauser Kaibling: four more categorised ramps follow at kilometres 29.58, 33.9, 37.33 and 49.78, three of them category 3. Riders who leave the main climb running on empty because they treat it as the day's finish line lose time exactly where others still have something left.

The first nine kilometres already demand discipline: three short category-4 ramps arrive before any rhythm is set — and as the opening stage of a four-day race, that start tempts everyone into full risk immediately. Riders who go beyond their sustainable output there pay for it twice: once on the Hauser Kaibling, and again in the closing kilometres.

12-Week Preparation

Age-group riders should plan on two and a half to four hours of effort for the opening stage of the Alpentour Schladming Dachstein, depending on pace and fitness over the roughly 2,000 metres of climbing.

The effort character shifts twice. The first nine kilometres, with their three short ramps, call for brief, largely anaerobic spikes typical of an MTB race start. Then the climb to the Hauser Kaibling brings 30 to 45 minutes of sustained aerobic-to-threshold effort. In the closing third, the short, hard efforts return — but on legs already worked, which makes them feel considerably more anaerobic than their length suggests.

Two phases decide the stage accordingly: the big climb itself, which demands even power over half an hour, and the string of four shorter climbs afterward, which tests fatigue resistance rather than peak output.

Training should therefore emphasise not just long, steady climbing but climbing under pre-fatigue specifically: short, steep repeats at the end of an already-long ride, once the legs are already heavy from earlier climbing. A block of several short, intense ramps at the start of a session helps simulate the frantic opening as well. Since this is the first of four stages, it is also worth using training to build a feel for how much reserve a day of this size should leave for the ones that follow.