After the Tour de France, I've decided to set my sights a little lower and put something a bit closer to home.
The
Hessen Rundfahrt was first run in 1982, and continued until 2005, when it was expanded into the 3-Länder Tour, also taking in Thüringen and Rheinland-Pfalz in its 5 days. This lasted a further two years before it became another all-too-predictable casualty of the German falling-out-of-love with the sport. It was the traditional season-closer for the German season, sitting in late September.
There is much to be said for the cycling terrain of the region, however. It may not have the biggest mountains in Germany (Bavaria does) or the most (Baden-Württemberg does), but it does have a wide range of short and medium-length climbs of varying difficulties. It is the terrain of the Brothers Grimm (they were from Hanau, at one end of the Land, and studied in Kassel, at the other end of it), so forests, lakes and sprawling hillside is the order of the day. It is also the terrain of Germany's biggest one-day race, the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt, the great May Day race that rolls through the lower end of the Taunus mountains and that sparked my own personal love affair with the sport.
Creating a tough race on this terrain is not hard; much like the Basque country, though super long, difficult climbs are hard to come by, there isn't a great deal of flat terrain anywhere (there aren't many proper super-steep Basque-style climbs, mind). With that in mind, I present my own resurrection of the race, staying true to the old "5 road stages" format.
Stage 1: Kassel - Kassel, 172km
Climbs:
Dornhagener Berg (cat.3) 4,3km @ 4,3%
Heiligenberg (cat.2) 4,4km @ 5,2%
Pentersrück (cat.3) 3,2km @ 5,0%
Kammerbacher Berg (cat.2) 2,4km @ 8,1%
Meißner Kuppe (cat.1) 10,0km @ 5,6%
Bielstein-Michelskopf (cat.2) 3,6km @ 6,1%
Hohes Gras (cat.2) 3,9km @ 6,7%
We start with a stage looping through the northern end of Hesse, around the northermost city in the Land, Kassel, its reputation and history in fairytale only exacerbated by its location under the watchful gaze of the fantastical
Schloß Wilhelmshöhe...
The stage sees the riders set out to the south and east over a number of small climbs, of which the Heiligenberg is the most imposing. Three categorised climbs are crammed into the first 40km, and this will give the break a chance to form, and to build an advantage over the next period of rolling terrain before the riders reach the banks of the Werra. From here, they face the steep rise from its banks to the edges of Kammerbach - a short but steep ascent of 2400m that maxes out at 17% - followed in short order by the gradual, but much longer, climb to the
Hohe Meißner, the tallest mountain in the area, standing at 754m (the road we pass is some way beneath this, only just over 700m, but if the organisers wanted to we could finish at the
tower at the summit). This, the first and only cat.1 climb of the day, comes just after the halfway point; the second half of the stage is like a beefed up version of the first; it starts - after the Hohe Meißner of course - with a couple of categorised climbs, before giving way to rolling hillside as we make our way back into Kassel.
We pass the finishing line for the first time with 35km to go; a circuit around to the west of the city then ensues, with a long and gradual drag up through the Habichtswald serving as an entrée before the main course of the final circuit, where the intermediate mountain theme for the race is drawn - the final 4km drag up to the
Hohes Gras Aussichtsturm. This final climb
is not a legbreaker, but including some tougher periods over 7,5% that will enable the race to be opened up by riders who want it to be, especially given that the summit is only 13,5km from the finish, of which the first 8km are descent through the Druseltal, past the aforementioned fairytale castles of Wilhelmshöhe and
Löwenburg, and then a short loop around Kassel to finish in the city centre.
Should be one for the puncheurs and climbers, but time gaps may not be huge; rather like an early stage at a similarly mid-mountainous race such as País Vasco or Coppi e Bartali.
Kassel:
) and MTF on Passo Pordoi (a classic).
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