HeideGravel: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

Start and finish are at the fire brigade training ground in Taura near Torgau, in the middle of the Dahlener Heide – a forested heath in northern Saxony that hosted the German Gravel Championship in 2025. All three distances ride exactly that championship lap: winding trails, long forest sections and fast gravel. The race is the Sunday of a weekend whose Saturday brings a community ride, a pasta party and camping on the event ground; mountain bikes and handlebar extensions are not allowed, so this is a gravel-bike race.

The lap measures just over 32 kilometres and stays almost flat at about 105 to 117 metres for the first eight or so. The ground then rises in waves until, from kilometre 17, the course rolls along the crest of the heath between 160 and 195 metres. That is where the longest climb of the lap sits, at kilometre 24.5: about 1.3 kilometres at a little over three percent. The last five kilometres drop back to Taura. There are no steep ramps: a third of the lap is flat, a third gently up and a third gently down. The long distance rides it three times.

Pacing Strategy

Three identical laps call for an even race. The first lap should feel almost too easy, especially the flat opening where the groups ride hard after the start. The rolling section from kilometre 17 comes three times, the last from about kilometre 81.

The race is decided on the third lap, with the longest climb at kilometre 88.7. The trap over this distance is not the climbing but the sum of the short accelerations: every forest bend, every wave and every gap to the group. Riders who follow every surge on laps one and two have nothing left on lap three. With three hours of racing, eating early and regularly is part of the pacing plan.

Training plan for HeideGravel: 12-week build

For amateur riders the 100 kilometres usually take three to five hours. It is a mainly aerobic endurance effort interrupted by hundreds of short spikes: accelerations out of corners, short rises and changes of pace in the group.

The third lap is decisive, with the longest climb at kilometre 88.7 and the rolling crest of the heath before it. You are well prepared if after three hours you can still ride in control above endurance pace and respond on the waves.

Training centres on long rides of four hours or more with tempo blocks in the final hour, plus threshold intervals and sets of short accelerations. Because mountain bikes are excluded, long sessions should also happen on a gravel bike in the forest: cornering on gravel, line choice and group riding while tired.

The race is in early September and can be warm. Fuelling for three to four hours – carbohydrate per hour and fluid volume – should be tested at race pace on long training rides.