Alzenau Triathlon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The swim is 500 metres in the Meerhofsee, a beach start run as a rolling start; athletes enter individually rather than in one mass pack. The organisers have kept that format for years, which takes the sting out of the opening for newcomers and equally removes any chance of latching onto feet.

The 22 bike kilometres are two laps of the road circuit Alzenau – Wasserlos – Kahl – Alzenau. The profile is flat: 155 metres of climbing in total, a good half of the route level, and not a single section steeper than six percent. Each lap holds two short rises, the first right at kilometre 1.05 over 530 metres at 4.2 percent, the second at kilometre 5.25 over 380 metres at 3.6 percent; both repeat on the second lap at kilometre 12 and 16.2. The roads are not fully closed and drafting is prohibited.

The closing 4.6 kilometre run leaves transition at the municipal stadium and heads into the Alzenau Unterwald. At 33 metres of gain and without one countable climb it is effectively flat, yet undulating enough under the trees that only 37 percent of it is genuinely level. The last metres run over the tartan track back into the Prischoß stadium.

Pacing Strategy

The rolling start takes away the excuse of the scrum and hands you a task instead: you swim 500 metres essentially alone and have to set your own pace without the pull of a pack. Take the first 100 metres under control, then find a stroke rate you can hold to the exit; on a sprint, going into the red in the water costs you the opening bike kilometres.

On the bike the case is simple: with 51.7 percent flat and no gradient above six percent, this is an even effort just under threshold, effectively a 22 kilometre time trial. Because drafting is banned and the roads stay open, you do not gain here through accelerations but through a clean, uninterrupted position and a steady power level across both laps.

The trap is the second lap. The four small rises are harmless individually, but on lap two they sit at kilometre 12 and 16.2, exactly where impatience sets in and the sprint towards transition begins. That is where the race is decided: the 4.6 kilometres in the Unterwald are too short to recover on and too flat to disguise a bike leg finished too hard.

Training plan for Alzenau Triathlon: 12-week build

The Alzenau sprint takes roughly 1:05 to 1:35 depending on level. The demand is a consistently high, largely even intensity around threshold; there is neither a climb nor a descent to hand you a break or give the effort structure.

The race is decided in the transition from the bike into the first run kilometres. Because both bike and run are flat, it is not climbing strength that counts but the ability to pick up a high stride rate immediately after 22 kilometres held in one position. The short undulations in the Unterwald then ask for small adjustments rather than big changes of pace.

Train accordingly: bike intervals of 8 to 20 minutes around threshold, ridden in race or aero position, reproduce this course far better than short hard accelerations. Add brick runs of 10 to 20 minutes straight afterwards, with the first three minutes deliberately controlled and at high cadence.

Two conditions belong in the plan. First the rolling start: practise open-water swimming without a group, meaning even pacing and regular sighting instead of holding a wheel. Second the late-September date; the Meerhofsee is noticeably cooler than in high summer by then, while the 10:15 start falls in a part of the day that can already be warm on land. Rehearse both at least once in preparation, wetsuit decision included.