Kitzbüheler Horn - Höglern

The legendary ramp (Peakbreak 2008) Kitzbuehel - Kitzbueheler Horn A short stageon the schedule. The peloton starts neutralized until Kitzbuehel. From there a marvelous street heads up to 1.670m sea level to the restaurant Alpenhaus on the Kitzbueheler Horn. The Panoramastreet offers up to 18% ascent and is one of the steepest passages of PEAKBREAK 2008.

My personal climb rating:

a short, beautiful and indeed tough ascent up to the Alpenhaus (the final ascent to the antenna should be walked because there are numerous hikers on their way, too); the climb can be done very quickly (40mins) but you need to be prepared for a steep profile especially in curves, interrupted only once by a plateau-like kilometer to take a short, deep breath. I used 38/26 -better would be 28 behind. When I drove this climb some 10 years ago, I had problems in the descend: excessive breaking heats the front wheel rim, so be careful and cool it with water from your bottle (otherwise the tube can burst). A real great downhill experience; in the last kilometer of the descend I went 86km/h! I have never went that fast anywhere else. Christian

ik heb de kitzbuhelerhorn maar eenmaal beklommen en dat was in 1983. Ik vind dat van de 140 cols die ik opreed van 2000 meter veruit de zwaarste. Ik deed er 1u10m over. Willy alias de Viking !

We have friends in Austria and have been regular visitors in both summer and winter for the past ten years although its only in the last couple of years that I have considered doing a climb like the Kitzbuheler Horn. Ive now done it twice. The first time was obviously a shock, at an average 13% gradient for 6 and a bit miles. It was made easier by the fact I was on my Cannondale Lefty with slick tyres though. Last summer I returned fitter, stronger although not much lighter, and completed it on my road bike. I knew what to expect the second time but riding it on my standard 39-53 gear set up with 12-27 at the rear was punishing. Still, I only stood up for the steep top section where the road gives way to a narrow track leading to the mast. A fantastic climb and an incredible ride back down overtaking cars at 62mph. 1 hr 30 mins going up and around 12 mins coming down. Doing a climb like this gives you a new found respect for the tour riders, even if the French mountains are a lot flatter! I hope to do several more big climbs in the Austrian Alps this summer. GET SOME GOOD BRAKE PADS FOR THE RIDE BACK DOWN THE MOUNTAIN.

My husband and I, both in our mid 50s, visited Austria in October 2006 and together with two German friends walked up the 10km to reach the 1996m peak of this spectacular and picturesque peak. it was awesome as we do not have mountains like this in Malaysia. The wonderful part of this visit was that it was a test of our endurance and we can really claim that we are fit and healthy enough to have survive this. Attach is a photo

This is a tough climb and ranked at number 14 on the difficulty scale - as a note, Alpe dHuez is only ranked 531st! I was actually unaware of what lay ahead of me when I did the climb. I was cycling in the area and decided to see if there was a road for me to climb up in Kitzbuehl. Lo and behold I see a sign for the Panoramastrasse - thatll do I thought! It starts tough, levelling out only briefly low down. It then gets steep and never lets up even for a millimeter until the top. At the lift station you have the option to do the last very steep footpath bit ( up to 20% gradient ) to reach the antenne mast at the summit. As you are already there, you cant really not do it! The Panoramastrasse is free for bicycles, so just ride on past the tollgate and pretend that you are enjoying your ride. A couple of months earlier I cycled up the Stelvio/Stifserjoch in 2hrs 5 minutes, so I was reasonably fit, but the Kitzbuehler Horn really was a challenge, and much more intense than the Stelvio. I had a compact double-chainring and was out of the saddle a lot of the time, so unless you are very strong I wouldnt recommend doing it with a standard double-chainring. I overtook mountain bikers who had used up all their available gears and were having a hard time - though they were probably not so fit. Overall, a tough but very rewarding hill. Give it a go!