Gravel Around Salzkammergut: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The first 34 kilometres are the calmest part of the day. The course stays at lake level between roughly 460 and 540 metres, rolling along gravel tracks and side roads and giving away almost no vertical. Anyone who concludes here that the course is flat has not seen it yet.

At kilometre 34.7 the first long climb starts, a good five kilometres, lifting the field to around 950 metres by kilometre 50. After the descent, kilometre 70 brings the hardest passage of the first half: two climbs back to back, 4.3 and 2.7 kilometres, leading to the loop's high point at roughly 1,030 metres around the Laudachsee and Grünberg. The route then drops back to valley level near 460 metres and reaches the first feed station at kilometre 102.

The final third is the real test. After another rise to 850 metres at kilometre 117 and a long, fast valley section, four climbs stack up from kilometre 156 and take the course back to 957 metres at kilometre 178. The decisive climb waits at kilometre 197: 5.5 kilometres up to 836 metres, ridden with 197 kilometres already in the legs. Only then does the route return to St. Georgen at 538 metres.

Pacing Strategy

The climbing works out at 16.6 metres per kilometre, but it is anything but evenly spread. Just under 30 percent of the route is flat and only five percent is genuinely steep. The day is therefore not decided on the steep ramps but by how much is left after 190 kilometres. The opening 34 flat kilometres are the biggest trap in the race, because they ride themselves in a group and still cost matches.

The two climbs at kilometre 70 and 75 are where the field sorts itself out for the first time. They are long enough to break groups, yet early enough that a hard effort here ruins the rest of the day. If you go with a move, do it deliberately rather than because the group dictates it.

The race is settled on the closing climb from kilometre 197. Five and a half kilometres uphill after almost 200 kilometres of gravel is a different climb from the same five and a half kilometres in the morning. Riders who skimp on fuelling at the depots at kilometre 102 and 163 pay for it precisely here.

Training plan for Gravel Around Salzkammergut: 12-week build

For a typical age-group rider the effort lasts roughly eight to eleven hours depending on fitness and surface conditions. The character is mostly steady aerobic work: long valley sections separated by climbs of two to five and a half kilometres ridden between endurance and threshold. Anaerobic spikes come less from the profile than from group dynamics and from short steep pitches on loose ground.

Two phases decide the race. The double ramp at kilometre 70 and 75 takes the first real bite out of your reserves, and the closing climb from kilometre 197 determines the result. Both are climbs at the end of a long effort, not climbs from fresh legs.

Training should therefore include long rides with the climbing placed late: sessions of five hours and more where the intensity only arrives in the final quarter. Pure hill repeats done fresh prepare you worse for this course than a moderately hard effort after four hours in the saddle.

Two further points have nothing to do with endurance: handling confidence on gravel over many hours, because concentration on loose ground fatigues, and a rehearsed fuelling plan. The coach is best placed to set carbohydrate intake and fluid volume for a day of this length in concrete amounts per hour, and to have you practise them in the long rides.