Gempen Grinder: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The course starts and finishes at the Graveldrome on the Schänzli just outside Basel and heads straight south into the Jura. The opening packs three climbs between kilometre 1.6 and 10.5: first 2.25 kilometres at 7.2 percent, then a shorter ramp, then 2.4 kilometres at 7.5 percent. That is a little over 430 metres of climbing before the loop has properly started.

The profile never really flattens, it just gets less regular. Only 18 percent of the route is genuinely flat, roughly a third climbs and another third descends. Three short, steep ramps come between kilometre 28 and 36, including a 930 metre section averaging 9.6 percent with pitches around 15 percent. The organiser puts the course at 88 percent offroad, and fast fine gravel alternates with singletrack descents through Jura forest.

The race is decided late. A 2.1 kilometre climb at 7.7 percent begins at kilometre 62.7, and less than three kilometres later the next one follows over almost two kilometres. That is about 290 metres of climbing inside five kilometres, with more than 60 kilometres of gravel already in your legs. What remains back to the Schänzli is rolling terrain where a gap can be held but rarely opened.

Pacing Strategy

The first ten kilometres decide how your day ends. Three climbs back to back, more than 430 metres of gain, and all of it on fresh legs: that is exactly where a gravel race gets lost. Ride the opening ramps at an intensity you could still hold at the end of a long day, and let groups go if they are climbing well above your threshold.

Through the middle section between kilometre 28 and 36 you meet three short ramps that are too steep to spin cleanly seated and too short to use tactically. Staying even pays here. The long rolling stretch that follows costs more than it looks, because almost nothing stays flat long enough to give real recovery.

The race turns on the double climb from kilometre 62.7: around 290 metres of climbing inside five kilometres with 60 kilometres already ridden. Anyone still holding a reserve there gains time that is very hard to take back on the rolling run-in to Basel. The classic trap is not that climb itself, it is the willingness to match every acceleration in the opening kilometres.

Training plan for Gempen Grinder: 12-week build

Plan on four and a half to six hours for 100 kilometres with 2,234 metres of climbing, depending on your level. The demand is anything but steady: with only 18 percent flat terrain and close to 9 percent steep climbing, this is not a constant aerobic grind but a sequence of efforts at and above threshold with short, incomplete recoveries in between.

Two phases decide the race. The first is the set of three opening climbs inside the first ten kilometres, which determines how much you have left for everything after. The second is the double climb from kilometre 62.7, which asks you to climb while already tired, and that is exactly what stays untrained if every hill session is ridden fresh.

Build towards long rides with the climbing at the end: four to five hours where the hardest ascents deliberately fall in the final hour. Add repeated climbs of eight to twelve minutes at 7 to 8 percent, which match the long ramps here, plus shorter one to two minute efforts at steeper gradients for the 9 percent pitches in the middle section.

The second focus is technical. An 88 percent offroad share and a third of the route descending mean you win or lose time on loose gravel and in singletrack descents without pushing more watts. Ride descents in training when you are tired as well as fresh, settle tyre pressure and equipment choice beforehand, and practise eating on the move, because the course is ridden self-supported and the rolling sections leave few quiet moments to fuel.