Skinfit Jannersee Triathlon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The swim is a single 400-metre lap of the Jannersee, a small marshland lake right beside transition. From the exit it is only a few steps into the transition area on the Sackstraße, where the finish also sits.

The bike course is a lollipop: just under six kilometres out over the surfaced field roads of the marsh onto the Senderstraße and south past the Wolfurt-Lauterach motorway junction to the level of Dornbirn-Nord, then a loop of a good four kilometres anticlockwise through the Dornbirn edges of Möckle and Haselstauderbühel, and the same six kilometres back. Almost 59 per cent of the course counts as level, there is no categorised climb, and the 76 metres of gain are level crossings, motorway bridges and embankment ramps. The run then heads west as an out-and-back: along the lake's north shore, down to the Sackstraße and along a chain of surfaced field roads following the Birkengraben, a turnaround after around two kilometres, and back on the same line. 13 metres of climbing over four kilometres.

The terrain sets the character. The Lauterach Ried is drained bog on the floor of the Rhine valley: dead-straight ditches, meadows to the horizon, the odd row of poplars and no shade at all, with the Bregenzerach mouth and Lake Constance beyond. The Triathlonclub Dornbirn stages the race for the 32nd time; beyond the Allgemeine Klasse the programme consists of national youth-cup races, and the same course is also contested as a relay. On the bike only parts of the route are closed: normal traffic rules apply, some sections are cycle-path compulsory, and the traffic on the motorway feeder corridor is real.

Pacing Strategy

400 metres from a mass start are short enough that your heart rate climbs far above any plan in the opening strokes. Find clear water early, swim the lap at an effort that keeps your breathing controlled, and treat the short route into transition deliberately as a settling phase.

The out-and-back on the Senderstraße decides the race. Both stretches are dead straight, flat and identical, which is exactly why the wind alone determines how your pace feels there. Ride to effort rather than to speed: into the wind, the same power costs several km/h, and trying to defend the number burns you out for the Dornbirn loop and for the run. That loop is the only section with corners and village streets, and it asks for short re-accelerations rather than steady output.

The trap is the run. Four dead-straight kilometres through open marsh mean the turnaround stays visible for a long time without getting closer, and that the wind direction reverses once you reach it. Run the outbound to effort rather than to your kilometre split, hold your pace through the turn instead of surging there, and lift over the last kilometre back to the Sackstraße.

Training plan for Skinfit Jannersee Triathlon: 12-week build

For the Allgemeine Klasse, expect roughly 50 to 70 minutes depending on your level. The effort sits at or just above threshold throughout: no climb forces a plan, no descent offers recovery, and over distances this short there is no phase in which a mistake can be repaired.

The two straight bike sections on the Senderstraße and the first kilometre of the run decide it. On the bike you find out whether your output stays stable for twenty minutes with not one climb to set the rhythm; after transition, whether the pace you chose carries two kilometres to the turnaround and back again.

The conditions are the real difference from a pool race in a morning programme. The start is at 17:30 on an August evening, when the valley floor gives back the day's heat and wind often stands over the open marsh; there is no shade on a single metre of the bike or run course. Add the traffic situation: the bike course is only partly closed, with compulsory cycle paths in places and real traffic at the motorway feeder.

Three priorities follow. First, bike sessions with blocks of 3 times six to eight minutes at intended race effort, ridden alone and deliberately in wind on open ground, plus a few re-accelerations for the village loop. Second, brick runs of ten to fifteen minutes straight off those sessions, at race pace rather than easy. Third, short hard swim sets such as 8 times 50 metres with little rest, plus at least one open-water session rehearsing a mass start, because 400 metres leave no time to swim yourself in.