Raiffeisen Granitmarathon Kleinzell 2026
Heat, granite, and a four-hour climbing reality check.
The Intersport Pötscher Classic at Raiffeisen Granitmarathon Kleinzell looks manageable from the distance alone: 60 km on paper, but loaded with 2,000 hm, long climbs, and the kind of heat that slowly separates output from intent.
I finished in 03:46:15.3, 82nd of 159 finishers overall, 78th of 145 men, and 24th in Man 2. More importantly, the race showed exactly where the climbing base is solid and where specific hot-weather marathon durability still needs work.
82nd of 159 finishers on the Classic route
A solid Man 2 category result on a day that turned into heat management as much as bike racing.
2,000 hm on the classic Kleinzell XCM course
Almost four hours of sustained climbing pressure in the heat
Opening note
The distance was familiar. The way it accumulated was not.
Kleinzell rewarded the rider who could climb for a long time without emotional spikes. That was the lesson of the day: the middle was strong, the finish was honest, and the heat exposed exactly what still needs specific work.
Race character
Kleinzell looked simple on paper and very specific once the climbing began.
Raiffeisen Granitmarathon Kleinzell is not just another XCM marathon with a familiar distance number. The Intersport Pötscher Classic packs 60 kilometers with roughly 2,000 meters of elevation gain, and the route asks for steady climbing pressure more often than sharp, repeatable attacks.
That made the race a different problem from the shorter and more explosive Rab marathon earlier in the season. Rab was rain, rock, and repeated spikes. Kleinzell was heat, long climbs, and a sustained threshold-and-tempo grind with very few places to reset.
Start
The first mistake was letting the elite block decide the opening pace.
The morning never felt ideal. It was not sickness and not complete emptiness, but there was a clear lack of snap from the start. Even so, starting from the first elite block pulled the opening minutes too high.
The first third of the race confirmed the feeling later in the data: around 176 W average power, 172 bpm average heart rate, and 686 meters of climbing while the body was still refusing to open properly. The job became simple: back off before the race collapsed too early.
Best section
Once the legs came online, the middle of the race was genuinely solid.
Somewhere around the first third, the weakness started to fade. The rhythm became more stable, the climbs felt possible instead of merely survivable, and the race finally turned into something I could manage rather than something I was chasing.
That middle third was the best performance signal of the day: about 199 W average power at almost the same 171 bpm heart rate, while covering another 766 meters of elevation gain. It was not spectacular, but it was a very useful benchmark for the current climbing engine.
Heat
The final third was less about legs and more about temperature control.
The last part of the Classic route changed the story. The duration and elevation mattered, but the decisive limiter became heat. I had not had much warm-weather adaptation yet, and it became harder and harder to keep the body cool enough to hold intensity.
Power dropped to roughly 151 W in the final third, heart rate averaged 166 bpm, and the remaining 563 meters of climbing became a classic marathon finish: keep eating when possible, keep drinking, avoid panic, and carry the effort to the line.
Fueling
The carbohydrate plan was good enough, but the stomach set the upper limit.
Fueling landed at roughly 250 grams of carbohydrate: one 750 ml bottle with 90 g Nduranz drink mix, two gels, one salty bar, and two 750 ml ISO bottles from the feed zones. On paper that was solid, but not quite enough for a race that likely burned far more carbohydrate than I replaced.
The limiter was fullness rather than planning. More food felt risky, and the feed-zone ISO drink seemed diluted enough that the real carbohydrate intake was probably lower than ideal. For a hot, nearly four-hour XCM effort, that is the next obvious place to improve.
Data corner
The split profile explains the whole race.
The final file reads like a useful XCM diagnostic: 176 W average power, 212 W weighted power, 170 bpm average heart rate, 190 bpm max heart rate, 14.6% decoupling, and a training load of 297.
Opening third
686 m176 W avg power, 172 bpm avg HR. Too aggressive from the elite block while the body still felt flat.
Middle third
766 m199 W avg power, 171 bpm avg HR. The best part of the day: stronger power at nearly the same heart rate.
Final third
563 m151 W avg power, 166 bpm avg HR. Heat and accumulated load turned the finish into controlled damage limitation.
Heart rate distribution
Time in heart-rate zones from the activity stream.
Power distribution
Time in power zones from the marathon effort profile.
Route map
The GPX makes the climbing density visible.
The route starts and finishes in Kleinzell, then keeps stacking climbs through the surrounding Mühlviertel roads and forest sections until the final hour turns into heat control.
Elevation profile
Same visual treatment as Rab once GPX data is present.
The interactive map and profile use the same shared route component as the Rab post, with hover linking between the line and elevation chart.
Fueling
Enough to finish well, not enough to ignore the gap.
The plan delivered around 250 g of carbohydrate, but estimated expenditure was closer to 537 g. In cooler conditions that might have felt acceptable. In Kleinzell heat, it made the final hour more expensive.
- 750 ml bottle with 90 g Nduranz NRGY Unit Drink 90
- 2 gels
- 1 salty bar
- 2x 750 ml ISO drink from feed zones