CFK MountainMan/GIRL Hongarbergrennen: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The race starts in the evening at the lower Hongar car park in Aurach am Hongar, in the district of Vöcklabruck. From there exactly one asphalt road leads up the mountain, and it climbs from the very first metre. There is no junction, no alternative line and no point where you could freewheel.

The road works its way up in hairpins, five of which even carry their own names: Six, Reiter, Eder, Radpoint and Heisl. They do not, however, spread the climbing evenly. Around two thirds of the course sits in the steep band, the maximum passes 21 percent, and in between there are two short sections around kilometre 0.5 and kilometre 1.7 where the road goes almost level for a few seconds. Anyone who breathes out there gets the hardest part next: from kilometre 1.9 the road climbs to the finish with almost no let-up.

The finish is at the Gasthof Schwarz am Hongar. The organising club RC CFK keeps the tone deliberately relaxed: the mountain is the opponent, and your performance level is secondary. Road bikes and mountain bikes are ranked together, split by gender and by age over and under 40. The winners carry the title MountainMan or MountainGirl until the following year.

Pacing Strategy

For most participants the effort lasts somewhere between roughly 12 and 20 minutes. That is exactly the duration in which starting too hard is most expensive: at over 10 percent average there is no descent and no draft in which a mistake could be recovered.

The biggest trap is the first 400 metres. The slope is already steep there, the legs are fresh, the field sets off together, and practically everyone goes off too fast. Riding or running the opening minutes clearly above your own threshold costs more in the middle section than it gained at the bottom.

The two short level sections around kilometre 0.5 and 1.7 are the only places where your heart rate can settle at all. Use them deliberately to ease off rather than to attack. The decisive part comes afterwards: from kilometre 1.9 the road climbs to the finish with no meaningful interruption, and because no descent follows, you can empty yourself completely over the final stretch.

Training plan for CFK MountainMan/GIRL Hongarbergrennen: 12-week build

The Hongar demands a very narrowly defined ability: one single uninterrupted effort of around a quarter of an hour, steeply uphill. That is shorter and harder than classic threshold work and longer than anything sprint power could solve. The range to train is therefore just around and above threshold.

The most important content is climbing intervals close to race duration. Three to four repetitions of 5 to 8 minutes at or slightly above threshold, ridden or run on a climb of similar gradient, match the demand well. Add a single continuous effort over the full race duration every one to two weeks, because the pacing itself is half the job here.

Since around two thirds of the course sits in the steep band and the peaks exceed 20 percent, it pays to prepare for exactly those ramps. On the bike that means choosing easy gearing and training long seated climbs at low cadence, so you are not forced out of the saddle at the first hairpin. On foot it means practising uphill running with short, high-cadence steps and deliberately rehearsing the switch between running and fast hiking on the steepest pitches, where hiking is often the more economical option.

One practical detail to close: the race starts in the evening. If you normally train early, put at least some of your hard sessions at the same time of day and use them to rehearse your fuelling across the day as well.