Here comes the ugly, the bad, and the brute. TopFit Flanders. Real annual event of local cycling club called TopFit.
The one for the strongmens. Real classic, just like real tour of Flanders. Running entirely in the walley between two alpine chains, yet all but flat. Uper photo captures the landscape perfectly. Like real Flanders, TopFit course is circling forth and back, left and right, riding over every single hellingen or local hill in the walley. Most of them are short and punchy, too short for pure climbers, these can be grinded over with pure force and brute. Just look at the profile below and count those dark red strips. There is enough of them to bite into the legs of even the strongest of the fittest. The one who wants to win this, has to be strong enough to survive until end and very punchy to finish first a top of the Bled castle.
One of the protagonists and main motor in TopFit gang, Miha Kosmač – Kosi, who spent tremendous effort to edit this twistling-knotted course for perfect RGT user experience, has prepared special table with all climbs along the course. He gave them star rating, similar to Paris-Roubaix pave rating with one star for the easiest and five stars for the hardest. Anyone challenging the course can have a proper information what was done, whats coming up, and whats still left to ride. Here is the list of “gorenjska hellingens”:
| # | Name | at dist | distance | average gradient | max. gradient | Rating |
| 1 | Ribno | 5km | 500m | 8,4% | 12,8% | ** |
| 2 | Helling voorbij Legenda | 14km | 940m | 10,0% | 21,4% | **** |
| 3 | De Kerk Heuvel | 21km | 1600m | 5,3% | 22,5% | *** |
| 4 | Prezrenje Zuiden | 47km | 370m | 11,3% | 17,0% | *** |
| 5 | Gobovce – Podbrezje | 30km | 1900m | 4,1% | 9,4% | ** |
| 6 | Muur de Žeje | 34km | 300m | 10,9% | 20,1% | *** |
| 7 | Trnovc | 37km | 400m | 8,0% | 22,0% | ** |
| 8 | Op Globočnikberg | 50km | 430m | 14,0% | 20,8% | ***** |
| 9 | Onder de Brug Dobruša | 51km | 200m | 13,8% | 26,2% | **** |
| 10 | Muur deMoste | 65km | 200m | 17,6% | 30,1% | ***** |
| 11 | Breznica Climb (Edelweiss) | 68km | 100m | 6,8% | 15,1% | * |
| 12 | Smokuč Climb | 70km | 200m | 9,7% | 17,3% | ** |
| 13 | Op Koritno | 76km | 440m | 7,2% | 21,5% | ** |
| 14 | Dorp (Selo) | 80km | 330m | 7,4% | 13,4% | ** |
| 15 | Grot Zaka Climb | 84km | 570m | 11,0% | 15,1% | *** |
| 16 | Poljšica Classics | 86km | 2000m | 6,0% | 16,0% | **** |
| 17 | Podhom Climb | 92km | 310m | 7,8% | 18,2% | * |
| 18 | Triglavska cesta (Na Planiko) | 95km | 160m | 5,4% | 19,1% | * |
| 19 | Veslaška promenada | 96km | 350m | 10,0% | 27,2% | **** |
| 20 | Castle Climb | 97km | 530m | 11,0% | 30,5% | ***** |
With 1.640m of altitude gain in 98km it is third hilliest course in this serié. As already mentioned, the climbs here are not very long, and those longer 1.5-2.0km are not that steep on average, but they are numerous, dispersed throughout the course and most of them include some painfull steep ramps. Think of climbs like famous Patterberg or Oude Kwaremont in Belgium, these are like this. The entire fondo is like later part of real Flanders. With one exeption, the finish line. No flat run in here, instead you can expect 75 seconds long, burning, smoking, painfull grind up the Bled castle.
Sounds scary? Naaah…c’mon. It’s time for a fest!
Join the party here.