Ötztaler Radmarathon, live.

Four passes, one day, no excuses

Two hundred and twenty-seven kilometres over Kühtai, the Brenner, the Jaufenpass and the Timmelsjoch, starting at half past six.

The Ötztaler Radmarathon is the gold standard of European road gran fondos, and it earns the reputation with geography rather than marketing. Four thousand riders — drawn from more than twenty thousand applicants — leave Sölden at 06:30 and ride 227 kilometres with 5,500 metres of climbing over the Kühtai at 2,020 metres, the Brenner, the Jaufenpass at 2,090 and finally the Timmelsjoch at 2,474, which comes after two hundred kilometres are already in the legs.

The cut-offs are strict and the weather at 2,474 metres in late August has ended plenty of days that were going well at kilometre 180. Livebib puts the whole loop on the map with the rider on it, each pass drawn as it really is, distance covered and an arrival estimate for Sölden that keeps updating — which is exactly what the people waiting in the finish area want to know before the Timmelsjoch closes.