GravelMan: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The swim goes off at 10 am in the open-air pool: 500 metres as ten lengths of the 50 metre pool at the Waldschwimmbad Rosenhöhe, started rolling at five-second intervals. That removes the mass start from this cross triathlon and turns the opening leg into a time trial in the water, with turns instead of buoys.

On the bike come two laps of the 9.7 kilometre gravel circuit in the Offenbach city forest. The elevation profile is effectively a line: almost 90 per cent of the lap is level, the course analysis finds no climb at all, and the whole 20 kilometres add up to 46 metres. The difficulty lies entirely in the surface and the line you choose: asphalt, firm forest road and singletrail alternate, with technical obstacles thrown in. Tyres of at least 28 millimetres are mandatory and, unlike in road triathlon, drafting is allowed.

The run is four laps of a flat out-and-back through the lido grounds, with fast and technical sections all the way to the line. One thing to plan around: because new changing rooms and sanitary facilities are being built, the organiser has announced changes to the site plan and to the run layout; the loop exists in outline but not yet in detail. This second edition is staged by the Erster Offenbacher Schwimmclub 1896.

Pacing Strategy

The five-second start means you pace the 500 metres alone. Swim them as ten even lengths and resist the urge to hang onto the back in front of you; in a pool, clean turns and constant speed gain more than any surge.

What decides the race is your position going into the trail sections. Because drafting is allowed, groups form on the fast asphalt and forest-road stretches; on singletrail, though, overtaking is barely possible. Stuck behind a slower line there, you lose time no power figure will win back. So spend your effort deliberately just before the trail begins rather than evenly across the lap.

The main trap is the change of surface. On a course without climbs the firm asphalt invites a high base speed that turns expensive the moment the ground loosens: out-of-the-saddle efforts break traction on gravel, and every slide costs more than a missed gear change. Ride soft ground seated, with a smooth cadence and a line chosen early. The same applies on the run; four short laps with technical sections reward a constant cadence far more than any mid-race surge.

Training plan for GravelMan: 12-week build

The Dirty distance takes roughly 70 to 95 minutes depending on your level. The demand differs markedly from a road triathlon of the same length: instead of one steady effort, the gravel circuit asks for constant short power spikes accelerating out of corners, off obstacles and across changes of surface.

What decides it is therefore bike handling and the repeatability of those spikes, not raw threshold power. Two laps mean every technical feature arrives twice, the second time with tired forearms and less concentration, which is exactly where the mistakes happen.

The training emphasis belongs on gravel or forest sessions with 8 to 12 efforts of 30 to 45 seconds hard out of corners, ridden on loose ground with the same tyres and pressures you will race on. Add deliberate skills work: tight corners on gravel, braking before loose ground, riding singletrail behind others. A preparation built purely on the indoor trainer falls short here.

Swim and run stay manageable: 500 metres in a pool means turn practice and a well-paced ten times fifty, and for the four short run laps, brick runs of 12 to 18 minutes straight off an off-road ride are enough. And because the organiser has announced changes to the run layout, a look at the current site plan shortly before the race is worth more than memorising a course.