Rochlitzer Bergtriathlon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The start goes at 11 am in the Badesee Biesern, one kilometre on a single buoy-marked lap. What follows is a race that never comes back: the second transition sits on the market square of Rochlitz.

The bike course is two laps of a 20 kilometre circuit through Biesern, Nöbeln, Wechselburg, Mutzscheroda, Carsdorf and Rochlitz. At 565 metres of climbing and 13.7 per kilometre it is classified as rolling, yet only a quarter of it is level. Two places define each lap: a 1.13 kilometre climb at four per cent beginning after just 630 metres, and at kilometre 10.6 the hardest ramp on the course, 880 metres at 6.5 per cent average with peaks of 15.1, followed immediately by two further climbs. The elevation band runs from around 170 to 280 metres.

The run is what gives the race its name. Ten kilometres through the Rochlitz hill forest with 255 metres of climbing, of which 11.6 per cent is level and around ten per cent each sits in the steep up and steep down bands: from the market square at 170 metres the course climbs almost continuously to 341 metres by kilometre seven, interrupted by a 430 metre ramp averaging 10.4 per cent and touching 15.5, and then drops back to its starting height across three kilometres. It is a mountain run at the end of a triathlon, not a cool-down.

Pacing Strategy

The kilometre in the Badesee is the shortest and most harmless part of the day, and it should be swum that way: controlled, without a starting sprint. The first climb begins just 630 metres out of the first transition, and a heart rate carried out of the water turns expensive there immediately.

The race is decided on the ramp at kilometre 10.6 in its second repetition, so at bike kilometre 31.7. Eight hundred and eighty metres at 6.5 per cent with peaks above 15, followed straight away by two further climbs: that is a block of around six minutes well above threshold, and it comes twice. Ride the first lap deliberately in reserve and in an easy gear; stand up and force it there and there will be nothing left for the mountain run.

The main trap is the distribution of the run. Seven kilometres up and three down mean the splits from the first half say nothing about your finishing time. Run the climbs to your breathing and cadence rather than to the watch, walk the 15 per cent ramp at kilometre five briskly if you must, and save something for the last three kilometres: the descent off the Rochlitzer Berg is the fastest section of the race, but on tired legs it costs sure-footedness.

Training plan for Rochlitzer Bergtriathlon: 12-week build

The Olympic distance at Rochlitz takes an age-group athlete roughly two and three quarter to three and a half hours, clearly longer than a flat Olympic race, because 820 metres of climbing are spread across 51 kilometres. The demand is markedly variable: eight climbs on the bike, five on the run, with descents between them.

Two very different abilities decide it. On the bike, the repeatability of short supra-threshold blocks: the key ramp comes twice, each time with two further climbs attached. On the run, the ability to run seven kilometres uphill with well over two hours of racing already in the legs, and then to still coordinate three kilometres of descending cleanly.

The training emphasis on the bike is hill intervals inside a race-pace context: 2 sets of 3 efforts consisting of a four-minute climb at five to seven per cent with a short ramp attached, recovery only the descent. On the run, what counts is long uphill efforts of 25 to 40 minutes at constant effort plus deliberate downhill running under fatigue, 5 to 8 times 400 to 600 metres, because the course finishes with three kilometres of descent.

Add brick runs straight off hard climbing sessions and gearing that suits ramps of 15 per cent. And because the race is a point-to-point with two separate transition areas, the logistics need planning too: whatever you want in the second transition on the market square has to be dropped off there beforehand.