Wendland-Chrono Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The long distance of the Wendland-Chrono sends riders twice around the 22.8-kilometre loop at Prezelle — 45.6 kilometres against the clock, by far the region’s most substantial time-trial examination. The course through the low hills between the Elbe and the Lucie forest rolls continuously: its roughly 360 metres of elevation are spread across countless short waves between 75 and 115 metres of altitude, only a good 40 percent of the distance is truly flat, and genuinely steep ground does not exist.

The most distinctive feature is a 300-metre ramp at a good four percent, touching six, just before the end of the lap — it comes at kilometre 20 and again at kilometre 44, the second time with more than 40 kilometres in your legs. One final short rise waits a little over a kilometre from the line.

IGAS Wendland organises the race with obvious devotion and a deliberately low entry fee; time-trial machines and regular road bikes are scored separately. The small field and quiet Wendland roads create conditions that have become rare: a long, honest individual time trial that examines equipment, pacing and mental endurance in equal measure.

Pacing Strategy

Across two laps and well over an hour it is even dosing that decides, not any single climb: the course carries just under eight metres of elevation per kilometre but no rated ascent — only the short ramp before the end of the lap, arriving at kilometres 20 and 44. Hold power constant across the many small waves instead of pressing uphill and recovering down; pedalling firmly through the falling sections is among the biggest time reserves this course offers.

Ride the first lap deliberately just under the limit and push on in the second, once you know every wave. The open Wendland makes wind the main opponent: stay low into a headwind, choose a bigger gear with a tailwind. The trap at this length is a start that is too hard, repaid in the second lap as a creeping loss of power — the decision falls in the closing part of lap two, where steady output prevails over fading rivals.

12-Week Preparation

Two laps totalling 45.6 rolling kilometres mean 65 to 80 minutes of racing for ambitious amateurs — an effort just below functional threshold where budgeting is mandatory from the first minute. Unlike the short distance, it is not peak power that decides but fatigue resistance: press five watts too many on lap one and you repay them twice on lap two.

The decisive phase is the second lap from kilometre 30. The rolling profile feels different from how it rode when fresh — each short rise costs noticeably more, and the ramp at kilometre 44 becomes the touchstone. The descents offer no rest either: pedalling downhill needs rehearsing just as much as climbing.

Training needs two building blocks for this. First, long tempo blocks below threshold — say two to three times 20 to 30 minutes, later one continuous 50-to-60-minute block in the aero position, ideally on rolling terrain. Second, fatigue-resistant threshold work: intervals at the end of long rides, with kilometres already in your legs, to simulate the second lap.

At over an hour of racing, fuelling belongs in the plan — one or two gels and drinking from the aero bottle need practice. And the aero position must be sustainable pain-free for the full distance; that is settled in training weeks before, not on race day.