Kornwestheim SIKA Triathlon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The swim takes place in the Alfred-Kercher-Bad, and not in one go: after 250 metres there is a land exit and a re-entry. The start is at eleven as a pursuit start (individually by predicted time rather than in a mass start) and transition sits right beside the pool.

The bike lap starts at its highest point. From the pool at around 296 metres it rises briefly to about 309 and then drops over a good three kilometres to 260, the fastest part of the race. The bill comes in the second half of the lap: from kilometre 3.9 three climbs follow in quick succession, together some 60 metres of ascent over a good kilometre and a half, with ramps to 9.3 per cent. Ridden three times that makes 288 metres of climbing with barely a quarter of the course level. The run is no calmer: two passes of a roughly 2.6-kilometre loop with two short climbs each, the steepest ramps of which reach 9.4 per cent.

The setting is compact and urban. Swim, transition and finish all sit at the Alfred-Kercher-Bad, and the bike lap runs through Kornwestheim, lined with spectators at several points marked on the organiser's course plan. The Skizunft Kornwestheim stages the race for the 33rd time, on a Sunday in mid-September; the field is capped at 450 individual starters plus 30 relays, with the junior races held in the morning.

Pacing Strategy

The pursuit start removes the crush from the swim and puts the pacing entirely in your hands. Swim the two 250-metre halves evenly and use the land exit between them to catch your breath; it is a break, not a launching ramp, and a hurried re-entry costs more than the seconds it saves.

The second half of each bike lap decides the race. The long descent at the start makes the course feel fast; in reality three climbs follow immediately afterwards, and riding them at your limit three times leaves nothing for the run. Take the descent easy, shift early on the ramps and stay seated; the steepest sections are short, but they come round nine times.

The trap is the closing run. With only 17 per cent of it level and the first climb arriving as early as kilometre 0.4, no even kilometre split is possible here, and trying to hold one leads straight into a collapse on the second loop. Run to effort rather than to the watch, take the climbs with a shorter, quicker stride and use the descending sections (a full 40 per cent of the course) deliberately to roll.

Training plan for Kornwestheim SIKA Triathlon: 12-week build

For the Volkstriathlon in Kornwestheim, expect roughly 1:15 to 1:45 hours depending on your level. The demand is markedly undulating: across the bike and the run together barely a fifth of the distance is level, so your output jumps constantly between climbing and descending. Nowhere on this course is there the steady output of a flat race.

The three climbs in the second half of each bike lap and the two climbs of the run course decide it. Nine short ramps on the bike and four on foot mean thirteen chances to go too hard, and none of them lasts longer than about two minutes. That exact duration should be familiar from training.

The conditions are comparatively predictable and still distinctive. The swim is in a pool rather than open water, with a land exit and re-entry at halfway, a sequence you can rehearse in any pool and that otherwise catches people out on race day. The pursuit start also means you swim largely alone and cannot read your pace off the person beside you. Mid-September in Baden-Württemberg usually makes an eleven o'clock start mild, but the course is urban and largely without shade.

Three priorities carry the preparation. First, hill intervals on the bike of one to two minutes on gradients of four to nine per cent, ridden seated and followed by the descent rather than a rest. Second, brick runs on rolling ground rather than the flat, with the first climb inside the first five minutes. Third, pool work with broken sets such as 2 times 250 metres at race effort, exit and re-entry included.