XTERRA O-SEE Challenge: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The race opens with 1,500 m in the Olbersdorfer See. Out of transition the bike course heads straight into the Zittau Mountains, and it does so as one continuous 37 km loop rather than a circuit repeated several times.

The climbing is unevenly distributed. After a short ramp at km 3.2, the longest ascent of the day begins at km 6: 3.65 km at 6.1 percent average for a good 220 metres. From km 11.25 comes the steepest sustained section, 2.08 km at 10.7 percent with pitches above 22 percent. After short, sharp kicks around km 21 and km 23, another 1.4 km climb averaging 11.6 percent waits at km 26.3 before the course rolls back to the lake. Only about 16 percent of the loop is flat.

By comparison the run is moderate: two laps of 5 km on trails for 156 metres of climbing in total. Each lap opens with a climb of just under 900 m at around 5 percent, followed by a short second rise at km 1.7; the rest descends or rolls.

Pacing Strategy

Because the bike loop is ridden only once, you have no first-lap reference to calibrate against. You have to fix your plan in advance and hold an output you can still produce at km 26, where the last major climb sits and where the gradient, averaging 11.6 percent, is the steepest on the course.

The O-SEE Challenge is decided in the middle of the bike leg, between km 6 and km 13. The two biggest climbs of the day come almost back to back there, close to 450 metres between them. At 6.1 percent the long climb from km 6 is shallow enough to be ridden in too big a gear, and that is precisely what drains the reserves you need on the steep section from km 11.25.

On the run, the trap is in the first minutes of each lap. The climb starts after only 350 m, so immediately out of transition and then again immediately after the lap crossing. Both times you run into a gradient with your heart rate already high, and easing off deliberately in those first metres pays off above all on the second lap.

Training plan for XTERRA O-SEE Challenge: 12-week build

For most starters the race lasts between roughly three and a half and five hours. On the bike the demand is strongly structured: about 28 percent uphill, 30 percent downhill and only 16 percent flat produce a sequence of strength phases and technical descents rather than one steady aerobic effort.

Three climbs decide the race: the long one from km 6, the steep one from km 11.25 and the late one at km 26.3. The first calls for a brisk sustained effort of a good 20 minutes, the other two for short, very force-heavy sections beyond 10 percent, ridden on legs that already carry the day's work.

Preparation therefore centres on two different climbing formats: even efforts of 15 to 25 minutes on a moderate gradient, and repeats of 3 to 5 minutes on slopes above 10 percent, both ridden on the mountain bike and on loose ground. Low-cadence strength work belongs in there too, because the steep off-road kicks often leave you with no easier gear.

The run needs only moderate volume, but it should happen off-road and regularly follow straight on from a ride. Two laps with two rises each in their first half mean four switches from climbing to descending on tired legs, and brick runs of 20 to 30 minutes on rolling trails reproduce that well.