Salzkammergut Trophy Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The loop begins before sunrise with the mass start on the market square in Bad Goisern and runs for a good 200 kilometres through the mountains of the Salzkammergut, with views of the Dachstein, the Gosaukamm and the Hallstätter See. Eight catalogued climbs of Category 2 and 3 are spread across the whole distance: the first arrives at kilometre 8, a second at kilometre 23, then a block between kilometre 49 and 75.

What matters most, though, is the late clustering: two Category 2 climbs sit almost back to back at kilometre 139 and 142 – the second running 6.2 kilometres – followed by another at kilometre 165.

As a closed loop with a balanced elevation budget, every one of the 6,269 metres gained is also given back; nearly a fifth of the course is steep downhill. The surface alternates between forest roads, gravel and trail sections, from the valley floor at 498 metres to the high point at 1,425 metres. The Extreme counts among the most selective marathon courses in Europe – not because of one wall, but because of the sum of length, climbing and time in the saddle.

Pacing Strategy

Over more than 200 kilometres and 6,200 metres of climbing, the goal is not to gain time early but to avoid losing it late. The race is decided in the block of climbing from kilometre 139: two Category 2 ascents come almost back to back, the second over 6.2 kilometres, and beyond them another climb waits at kilometre 165 – all of it with well over 140 kilometres already in the legs.

Whoever can still pedal smoothly here rides past those who rolled out too fast in the cool morning. That is exactly the trap: the first climb arrives at kilometre 8, when the legs are fresh and the air is cold, and the field tempts you into a pace that won't hold for ten hours.

Ride the entire first half well below what feels easy. As a closed loop, descending skill counts across the full distance too – nearly a fifth is steep downhill, and focus fades with fatigue. Eat and drink in a fixed rhythm from the first kilometre; over this distance the race is almost never lost through the legs alone, but through the stomach.

12-Week Preparation

For most age-group riders the Extreme means ten to fourteen hours in the saddle – a load that draws above all on fat metabolism and the ability to take in and process food across a whole day. The character is mostly calm and aerobic, broken up by eight longer climbs that are never extreme on their own but grinding in sum. The real skill lies not in a single peak effort but in holding a moderate intensity steady over a very long time.

The race-deciding effort is the late block of climbing from kilometre 139: climbing when roughly 5,000 metres of ascent are already in the legs. That is exactly what training must target. Across the season, build very long base rides that gradually approach the pure race duration, and place their climbing deliberately in the second half so that you rehearse climbing under fatigue.

Practise your race fuelling until it is routine – grams per hour, solid and liquid carbohydrate, timing – because on this distance the stomach is often the limiting factor long before the legs are. Train descending with tired arms and fading concentration, since nearly a fifth of the loop points steeply downhill and a crash after eight hours costs the whole race.

Think too about kit for a long day with big temperature swings between the cool start and the midday heat. And get used to the early start: a ride in the half-light, with breakfast long before the first ramp, takes the fear out of the 5 a.m. gun on the market square.