the Race Around Austria: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The loop starts in St. Georgen im Attergau, heads north into the Mühlviertel and follows the border clockwise: first the hill country of Upper and Lower Austria, then the east and the south, where the route turns steadily more alpine through Styria and Carinthia.

The real race begins in the final third. From around kilometre 1,230 the big climbs come close together: three ramps of four and a half to nearly six kilometres at seven to ten percent, carrying the route onto the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse and its high point at about 2,520 metres. Tyrol and Vorarlberg follow with further four to five kilometre passes at kilometre 1,370, 1,496 and 1,685, before the course runs home through Salzburg; the last listed climb sits at kilometre 2,020, a good hundred kilometres from the finish.

What defines this loop is the change of landscape under a running clock: border roads in the Mühlviertel, the vineyards of southern Styria, the high Alps and finally the Salzkammergut again - four to seven days without a stage break, accompanied by a crew and a pace car.

Pacing Strategy

Over 2,130 kilometres you steer by time budget, not by watts. The central decision is the sleep strategy: every hour slept shows up in the results, and every hour skipped is repaid at night on the alpine passes. A plan with short fixed sleep windows beats riding by feel at this distance.

The race is decided between kilometre 1,230 and 1,700, in the high Alps. Ride the first twelve hundred largely flat to rolling kilometres too ambitiously and you arrive there in a state where the passes are survived rather than ridden. Conversely, the east is the section where calm, even riding builds a reserve.

The second trap is at the end: after the Alps some four hundred kilometres remain, with a last climb at kilometre 2,020. In that phase it is less about form than about continuing to eat and letting the crew make the clear calls.

Training plan for the Race Around Austria: 12-week build

For age-group riders the race lasts roughly four and a half to seven days depending on sleep strategy. The demand is a very low but practically uninterrupted effort across several days, overlaid with sleep deprivation - the limiting factor is rarely threshold power but tolerance of position, nutrition and staying awake.

Preparation therefore needs multi-day loads: consecutive long endurance days, at least one block with a night in the vehicle and riding on in the morning, and at least one session that genuinely runs past a night. A qualifying ultra such as the CHALLENGE is the most effective dress rehearsal available.

The decisive part is the alpine block from kilometre 1,230. Prepare for it with long mountain rides at the end of multi-day blocks - climbing on tired legs, not climbing in peak form. Add descending confidence at night and in cold above 2,000 metres.

August conditions cover everything: thirty degrees in southern Styria, afternoon thunderstorms, and single-digit temperatures overnight on the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse. Clothing system, lighting and working with crew and pace car belong in the preparation as much as the training does; without a functioning team the race cannot be ridden at all.