Bohemian Border Bash Race Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The route circumnavigates the Bohemian border mountains and returns to where it started. Along the way, gravel roads, forest tracks and quiet backroad asphalt alternate, and the landscape stays remote and densely forested for long stretches. The race is ridden self-supported: navigation, resupply, sleep and risk management are entirely your own responsibility. Held since 2022, it is aimed explicitly at experienced ultra-distance riders.

Barely a fifth of the course is flat; the rest climbs or descends almost without pause. Around kilometre 500 comes the first major climbing block, including an ascent of a good six kilometres at an eight percent average gaining close to 500 metres.

The course saves its hardest test for the end: between kilometres 1,190 and 1,260, three big climbs follow in quick succession, among them five kilometres at over eleven percent average with ramps up to 18 percent. The heaviest terrain lands on the most tired legs.

Pacing Strategy

Across 1,400 kilometres you budget your strength over days, not hours. Ride well below threshold and treat every climb as a negotiation, not an attack: every watt overspent on day one is missing twice over from halfway on. Plan sleep and resupply as an active part of your race strategy, not as interruptions to it.

The race is decided in the climbing block between kilometres 1,190 and 1,260: three big ascents, the steepest at over eleven percent for five kilometres, after nearly a week in the saddle. Riders who have budgeted well overtake here; riders who wanted to shine early will be pushing their bikes.

The biggest trap is the fast opening third: on rolling terrain with fresh legs it is easy to set an average speed your body cannot pay for over the full distance. Just as costly is postponing resupply stops until hunger is doing the riding instead of you.

12-Week Preparation

Depending on riding style and sleep strategy, expect several days to over a week of effort — the race is not one long day but a chain of long days with shortened nights.

The effort itself is almost entirely calm and aerobic, but never level: with around 25,000 metres of climbing and a loaded bike, the ascending becomes the real work, while short steep sections repeatedly demand strength rather than speed. What matters is the ability to climb steadily for hours with luggage and then descend with full concentration on loose surfaces.

The decisive phases are the climbing block around kilometre 500 and above all the finale from kilometre 1,190, which throws the three hardest ascents at a body already fatigued by days of riding. That is exactly what preparation should rehearse: climbing in a pre-fatigued state.

Build your training around blocks of consecutive long days in the saddle with full race luggage, climbing endurance on sustained ascents, and night rides including navigation. Test your sleep system and your fuelling under real conditions until setting up camp, eating and rolling on become routine — in this race, logistics decides as often as fitness.