TORTOUR Ultracycling: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The prologue at the Rheinfall is a short warm-up before the real lap starts at Romanshorn on Lake Constance and stays flat to gently rolling for the first 250-odd kilometres, banking kilometres before the terrain turns.

The mountains arrive at kilometre 256 and decide the race. A near-10-kilometre climb opens the block, gaining 636 metres at an average 6.4 percent, then the biggest single obstacle of the whole event follows at kilometre 288: an HC pass 17.6 kilometres long, gaining 1312 metres at an average 7.5 percent. A short, steep climb at kilometre 407 averages 9.6 percent, and a longer one follows at kilometre 414, just over 9 kilometres for 788 metres of gain, before the route pushes on through Buchs, Chur and Andermatt into the high mountains and delivers a second HC climb at kilometre 741, 11.8 kilometres long for 856 metres of gain, with one last climb of just over 3 kilometres near kilometre 800 closing out the mountain section.

From there the course runs flat for roughly 200 kilometres via Aigle, Yverdon, Vaufflin, Eglisau and Laufenburg back to Schaffhausen, where the shared 50-kilometre closing loop rounds the distance out to just over 1000 kilometres.

Pacing Strategy

The first 250 kilometres are flat, but more than a third of TORTOUR 1000's total climbing sits outside the eight named climbs altogether, in the constant small rises and dips between them. The course is never really level, even if the opening hours make it feel that way.

The race is decided in the mountain block between kilometre 256 and 800, and specifically at its two HC passes. Ride the first one too hard, the 17.6-kilometre climb at kilometre 288, and it shows up at the second HC pass at kilometre 741, hours later and after at least one full night on the bike, when there is nothing left in reserve to cover for it.

The main trap is treating the flat opening lap as recovery and going out too keen: a pace that feels sustainable in the first 250 kilometres is exactly what is missing at the second HC climb two nights later.

Training plan for TORTOUR Ultracycling: 12-week build

TORTOUR 1000 runs non-stop for roughly two days, which for most age-group riders means somewhere between 40 and well over 55 hours in the saddle depending on pace and sleep breaks. The demand is steady aerobic output for most of that time: only around six percent of the profile is genuinely steep, the rest is flat-to-rolling base pace, broken up by the two long HC climbs that call for real climbing strength and anaerobic spikes.

The race turns on the two HC passes at kilometre 288 and 741 and the shorter ramps around them, not primarily because of their gradient but because they arrive after many flat hours and at least one full night. Climbing on tired legs and a sleep-deprived brain is the actual challenge, not the climbing itself.

Training should prioritise long rides with the climbing loaded at the back end, not fresh morning hill intervals. Simulate climbing after six, eight, ten hours already in the saddle. Night riding belongs in the plan too, alongside long blocks at low-to-moderate intensity that build the aerobic base for two straight days on the bike.

The non-physical preparation matters just as much: a sleep strategy built around micro-naps rather than real nights, a fuelling plan for 40-plus hours, and clothing for the swing from summer heat in the lowlands to cold nights on the passes. Team riders should rehearse handovers with the support vehicle; solo riders should rehearse self-sufficiency between timestations.