SauwaldGiro: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The loop starts and finishes in St. Roman in the Schärding district and stays inside the Sauwald between the Inn and the Danube the whole way; its farthest point is only a good 15 kilometres from the start as the crow flies. It runs on country roads via Schärding, Andorf, Kopfing and Münzkirchen, with a stretch along the Danube on the Bavarian side.

The first half is deliberately unspectacular: three short climbs at kilometre 1, 16.5 and 22.4 worth around 40 metres each, with plenty of undulation in between. More than a quarter of the course has no gradient at all and only 2.6 per cent is steep in the narrow sense: this profile is about rolling, not climbing.

From kilometre 57 it tightens: 1.7 kilometres at 5 per cent, another 1.5 kilometres at 6.6 per cent at kilometre 63.3, then a 4.6-kilometre climb worth 219 metres at kilometre 77.4. The real key climb begins at kilometre 91.2: 5.1 kilometres averaging 7.1 per cent with ramps to 16 per cent and 361 metres of gain, the only ascent on the loop with the character of a categorised climb. After that only a short counter-climb at kilometre 103.8 stands between you and the finish.

Pacing Strategy

The profile invites a bad calculation: ride the rolling first 50 kilometres as a race effort, because nothing there really hurts, and you arrive at the key climb empty. On a course this rolling, riding in a group is the real saving, not your power number.

The climb from kilometre 91.2 decides the race. Five kilometres at 7 per cent, after more than 1,100 metres of climbing already done, are long enough to break groups for good, and they come so late that a misjudgement can no longer be repaired. Plan your fuelling so that the last solid food is well before kilometre 90.

The second trap is that the climbs at kilometre 77 and 91 sit only twelve kilometres apart: 580 metres of vertical between them in the final third. Following the group over the first one costs more on the second than the drafting ever gained.

Training plan for SauwaldGiro: 12-week build

For 105 kilometres with around 1,500 metres of climbing, plan on 3.5 to 5 hours depending on your level. With an 08:45 start at the end of August that means finishing in the midday warmth, so fluid intake and salt belong in the preparation.

The demand is rolling and undulating with one long climb at the end. At 14 metres of climbing per kilometre and only 2.6 per cent steep ground, the course mainly asks for repeated short efforts over crests and the ability to settle back into rhythm immediately, unlike an alpine marathon, which asks for one steady hour on a mountain.

What decides the race is climbing performance after three hours in the saddle. The 5.1 kilometres at kilometre 91 are physiologically the opposite of the first half: variable load there, 20 to 25 uninterrupted minutes just under threshold here.

Train both sides: long rides of 3 to 4 hours on rolling terrain with many short efforts, and a 20- to 30-minute threshold climb at the end of them. Add a weekly climbing strength-endurance session and at least two full fuelling rehearsals over the whole race distance.