Moret Triathlon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The start is at 7:30 in the Sickenhöfer See near Babenhausen. The 2,000 metres in still water are the most predictable part of the day; the middle-distance field is capped at 250.

The bike is four laps of a 20 kilometre course fully closed to traffic: out towards Altheim via Harpertshausen, on to a turnaround near Richen and back to the lake at Babenhausen. Two hundred and thirty-nine metres of climbing over 80 kilometres, 84 percent of the route flat, an altitude band from 123 to 146 metres. The organiser calls the course fully closed, flat and fast, and the profile bears it out: there is not one countable climb across the whole distance.

The half marathon is four laps of a 5 kilometre loop leading from the lake peninsula over field and farm tracks between the Sickenhöfer See, Harpertshausen and Langstadt. One hundred and nine metres of climbing over 20 kilometres, 71 percent flat. The surface is the real difference from the bike course: firm but uneven farm track instead of asphalt, and largely unshaded. VfL Münster stages the Moret Triathlon for the 42nd time in 2026, making it one of the oldest triathlons in Germany.

Pacing Strategy

Two thousand metres in a still lake are long enough to set a pace and hold it. Use that, because it is the only section of the day in which neither wind nor surface disturbs the calculation.

On the bike the task is riding four identical laps at the same power on a course that gives you no feedback. Eighty-four percent flat means no rise where the power goes up by itself, no descent where it comes down. Set a target for all four laps and check it at each split; the temptation to ride the first lap too hard on a closed, fast course is particularly strong here.

The fourth bike lap together with the second run lap decides the race. The main trap, though, lies in the change of surface: coming off smooth tarmac and attacking the farm tracks at road-half-marathon pace means overcooking it immediately. On uneven ground the same pace costs more force, and over four laps that shows up on lap three. Govern the run strictly by effort, and expect the laps to get warmer and heavier from late morning on.

Training plan for Moret Triathlon: 12-week build

The middle distance takes roughly 4:30 to 6:15 depending on level. The demand is an exceptionally even, long aerobic effort: at 2.9 vertical metres per bike kilometre and 5.1 per run kilometre, the terrain produces no load changes at all, neither relieving nor challenging.

The last two bike laps and the third run lap decide it. Both are stretches in which fatigue comes purely from duration in the same position or the same movement pattern; there is no gradient to load the muscles differently in between.

Bike training therefore needs long unbroken blocks: rides of 2:30 to 3:30 with two or three blocks of 30 to 45 minutes in the target range, fully in race position. On a course with no climbs, position tolerance over a good two and a half hours is the limiting factor rather than climbing ability.

Two things are specific for the run. First, long brick sessions of 60 to 90 minutes with a substantial part on field or gravel tracks rather than tarmac, because the four laps are run on exactly that surface. Second, the heat: a 7:30 start at the end of August means the entire half marathon on a shadeless farm-track loop falls into the middle of the day. Heat acclimatisation and a drinking and fuelling plan mapped across five to six hours matter as much here as any interval session.