Grand Raid BCVS: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The race leaves Verbier with no preamble at all, straight into an 8.2 kilometre climb at 8.3 percent that demands 685 metres of ascent from the gun. From there the point-to-point route works east along the slopes above the Rhône valley, with four further climbs of 2.7 to 5 kilometres between kilometres 22 and 67.

The section between kilometres 67 and 100 brings two longer climbs of 5.1 and 5 kilometres, before the Pas de Lona begins at kilometre 100.4: 8.2 kilometres averaging 11.4 percent and 934 metres of unbroken ascent, the only top-category climb in the race and the last real obstacle before Grimentz.

The terrain is alpine throughout. Barely six percent of the course is flat, while around 26 percent each falls into the steep climbing and steep descending bands. The route loses almost as much height as it gains, which means every pass is followed by a long and demanding descent.

Pacing Strategy

The opening climb is the hardest pacing task of the day, because it comes immediately and because the field is still together. Ride it at an intensity you could repeat after eight hours and let places go. Over 124 kilometres, two minutes on the first climb mean nothing.

The race is decided on the Pas de Lona from kilometre 100.4. With around 4000 metres of climbing already in your legs you meet a climb averaging 11.4 percent, part of it hike-a-bike. The decision is not made there but in the hours before: spend too much between kilometres 60 and 90 and you arrive at the foot of the pass with nothing left.

The second trap is the descending. A quarter of the course drops steeply and most of it is technical. Concentration and braking strength fade with fatigue, which is why the late descents cost more time than the early ones. Plan your fuelling firmly into the climbs, not the descents, where it is barely possible.

Training plan for Grand Raid BCVS: 12-week build

Expect roughly six to eleven hours for the 125 kilometre distance depending on your level. The demand is endurance-dominated with very long aerobic climbs, broken by technical descents that offer little recovery because they ask for concentration and upper-body work.

The race is decided in the last thirty kilometres: the climbs from kilometres 88.7 and 96.6 and then the Pas de Lona. All three sit beyond the fifth hour, which means the decisive quality is not climbing power when fresh but climbing power after 4000 metres of ascent.

Training should therefore centre on very long rides with 2500 metres of climbing or more, deliberately placing a hard climb late in the session. Two or three rides beyond six hours in the final ten weeks are the baseline for this distance, not the exception.

Two areas are routinely underestimated here. First, pushing and carrying technique for the steepest parts of the Pas de Lona, which simply has to be practised. Second, technical descending under fatigue, along with altitude tolerance for the sections above 2500 metres and a fuelling strategy that holds up over many hours.