Radsporttage Gippingen GP: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The race opens with four laps of the 8.1 kilometre C circuit from Leuggern via the Hardwald, Böttstein and Kleindöttingen. That section is comparatively flat and selects through speed rather than gradient.

From kilometre 33 the race moves onto the A loop: 20.2 kilometres via Fehrental, Schlatt, Loorholz, Mandach, Rotberg, Villigen, Böttstein and Kleindöttingen back to Leuggern. Each of those seven laps contains the same 2.3 kilometre climb averaging 6.4 percent with ramps to 14.6 percent, a good 145 metres of unbroken ascent.

The field therefore rides the same climb seven times, roughly 20 kilometres apart. Just under a quarter of the course is flat, around eight percent each sits in the steep climbing and steep descending bands, and the rest alternates continuously. For a circuit race that adds up to an unusually hilly overall profile.

Pacing Strategy

A race with seven identical climbs is decided neither on the first nor on the last, but on the consistency in between. The four flat C laps cost little in the bunch and a great deal at the front: working for position there is almost always wasted.

What decides it is the repetition of the Mandach climb from kilometre 33.9. At a good seven minutes each pass is short enough to ride hard, which is exactly why the temptation is strong. Ride the first three passes well above your sustainable output and you will not be in the group for the fifth.

The second trap is the descents and the connecting sections. Because a good 18 flat to falling kilometres follow every climb, gaps close easily in the draft and barely at all alone. The most expensive mistake is therefore letting a few metres go at the top and then trying to close on your own.

Training plan for Radsporttage Gippingen GP: 12-week build

Expect roughly four and a half to five and a half hours for the elite distance depending on how the race unfolds. The demand is markedly interval-shaped: seven hard climbs of a good seven minutes each, embedded in long, fast group sections at a high baseline intensity.

The race is decided on the fifth through seventh passes of the Mandach climb, kilometres 115 to 160. What matters there is repeating a threshold effort after three hours of racing without the power falling away from pass to pass.

Training should centre on repeated threshold intervals of six to ten minutes with long but incomplete recoveries, ridden on a gradient of six to seven percent. Five to seven repeats in one session mirror the race closely.

Add long rides of four to five hours with more than 2 500 metres of climbing, deliberately placing the last intervals after the third hour. Bunch riding belongs in the plan too: on a course with long connecting sections, the ability to sit cheaply in the draft decides what you have left for the next climb.