Thermenregion-Cup 5. EZF (Finale) Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The course leaves Grub toward Gruberau, runs out to a turning point near the Geschriebene Buche, then returns through Gruberau to a finish just short of Grub. There's no settling-in period: a short ramp arrives within the first half-kilometre, and the terrain stays rolling for the rest of the ride. Flat ground accounts for under a fifth of the distance, with climbing (42 percent) and descending (39 percent) splitting almost the rest evenly.

The defining stretch sits between roughly kilometre 8.3 and 10.4 – a near-two-kilometre climb rated category 4, the longest continuous rise on the course and its only officially categorised one. A 1.45-kilometre hill at kilometre 5.2 sets up the legs beforehand, and a shorter roller follows around kilometre 13.4.

The high point tops out above 500 metres, some 165 metres above the 338-metre start, and total climbing comes to close to 300 metres – but with net elevation gain of only 20 metres, start and finish sit at almost the same altitude: what goes up over the lap comes back down. One last short kick appears at kilometre 19.55, just before the finish line back in Grub.

Pacing Strategy

Riding without a draft means only your own steady output counts – every surge has to be paid for personally, with no field to shelter behind afterward. The biggest trap on this course is its string of short ramps: spiking power on the rises at kilometre 0.4, 5.2 or 13.4 and then freewheeling the descents burns more energy than holding one constant wattage, and with 42 percent of the route climbing against just 18 percent flat, that cost compounds over the lap.

The race is decided on the near-two-kilometre climb between kilometre 8.3 and 10.4, the only categorised rise and the longest sustained effort on the course: attack it too hard and the next third unravels, ride it too cautiously and there's no time left to recover before the turnaround.

One final short ramp at kilometre 19.55, right before the line, still demands a clean effort despite the accumulated fatigue – arrive there empty and the last seconds slip away.

12-Week Preparation

A 19.8-kilometre time trial over rolling terrain occupies most age-group riders for roughly 30 to 40 minutes – a duration that sits squarely in threshold territory. The effort is largely a steady, aerobic push near individual threshold, punctuated by short, mildly anaerobic surges on the steeper sections, above all the near-two-kilometre climb between kilometre 8.3 and 10.4.

That climb is where the race is decided: it demands another step up in output despite fatigue already banked from the earlier rollers, without blowing up on the descent that follows. The short final ramp at kilometre 19.55, right before the finish, still calls for a clean pedal stroke even on tired legs.

Training should center on threshold intervals whose total duration mirrors the expected race time, backed up by shorter, harder efforts that mimic the course's brief ramps. Because the route offers almost no flat stretches, it pays to train specifically on rolling roads and practise holding power steady rather than speed – not overcooking the climbs and not fully freewheeling the descents.

Since the event is ridden without a draft, time-trial position work belongs in preparation too: holding an aerodynamic posture through the full distance, including on the climbs where the instinct is to sit up, makes a measurable difference on this course.