Kraichgau Energie Summertime Triathlon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The start is at 10:00 in the Sieben-Erlen-See at Neuthard, two laps for a good 1,500 metres in a lake the organiser advertises for its clear water. The Olympic distance requires a DTU race licence or a day licence.

The bike is three long laps of the farmland roads around Neuthard, out on the K3529 and into open country from the roundabout at the edge of town. Ninety-six metres of climbing over 40 kilometres, 88 percent of the route flat, an altitude band of nine metres between 114 and 123. The organiser calls it a personal-best course and the numbers do not disagree. Drafting is banned with a 12 metre zone, and one organisational quirk belongs to the course: you count your own laps, and only on the third do you turn off to the second transition at the Altenbürg stadium.

The 10 kilometres are three laps of around 3.3 kilometres, each of which runs through the Altenbürg stadium, where the finish and the prize-giving are held too. Forty-eight metres of climbing over ten kilometres, 60 percent flat, two aid stations on the loop. The event is part of the Baden Tri Cup.

Pacing Strategy

Two laps over 1,500 metres in a clear lake give you a split and good visibility: use both for even pacing rather than a fast opening.

On the bike you have three identical laps and no help whatsoever from the terrain. At 88 percent flat and nine metres of altitude difference, power is your only control, and the wind direction over the open fields is the only thing that changes your speed. Set an output you can ride three times identically, and do not follow the speedometer when the course turns. The personal-best character of the route is the real trap: because nothing feels hard, riding ten watts too high is easy.

One feature demands extra attention here: you count your own laps. Miscounting costs more than any pacing error, so make the lap count a fixed part of your plan.

The race is decided on the second run lap. The pass through the stadium comes three times and creates a finish-line effect each time that has to be endured twice. Run the first lap as your second fastest, use the second stadium pass as a check, and only lift on the third.

Training plan for Kraichgau Energie Summertime Triathlon: 12-week build

The Olympic distance takes roughly 2:05 to 2:55 depending on level. The demand is a long, exceptionally uniform effort in the upper aerobic to threshold range; neither bike nor run contains a rise to give it structure.

The roughly one-hour bike split decides it, because on a personal-best course with no vertical the time gaps come from power, position and wind management alone. After that the second of the three run laps settles it.

Bike training should therefore consist of long unbroken blocks: 2 x 20 to 30 minutes at threshold in race position, part of them on open, wind-exposed farm roads with the explicit aim of holding power rather than speed. Position tolerance over an hour is the limiting factor on this course.

For the run, 3 x 3,300 metres at race pace is the obvious session, because the 10 kilometres are exactly three such laps, plus brick runs of 25 to 40 minutes. And the conditions are a genuine factor: early August on the Upper Rhine plain with a 10:00 start means the second and third bike laps and the entire run fall into the midday heat, on open farm roads and in a stadium without shade. Heat acclimatisation, a cooling strategy in transition and a drinking plan for around three hours belong in the preparation as firmly as the intervals.