[Closed] Zillertal Bike Challenge

Me and a mate were the only two brits in the 2017 event. We did the hardest Kings category with no lift assistance.
It's not a Singletrack fest by any means, the descents are mainly on rough often loose fireroad type terrain with switchbacks, alpine double track paths and a very small amount of bike park type singletrack at the end of day 1 and day 2, the descents (with the exception of the small amount of singletrack) are eye wateringly fast however and its that that keeps the adrenaline big time as an off on loose fire road at 60-70 kph would have been interesting !
It is absolutely brutal in terms of climbing figures, and the course profile does not lie. The climbs are up to 16K long and most have a serious average gradient that never lets up. The final day up to the glacier I recorded 3400 M (11,000 ft) ascent in 58 K (36 miles) which included probably 25K of downhill. You mentioned in your post about the high level of tarmac on the route, and you are right, all the first climbs start with an hour or so of tarmac, but in fairness I was glad of that, as it was the least painful way of ticking off the metres.
It is absolutely XC through and through, and at best guess over 90% including us were on light XC hardtails, there was a few short travel XC bikes but I guess those would have been scary light. I have no clue on your riding fitness level but we found the standard very high in the Kings category. We know there is always some World Class marathon racers always there, but it was the strength in depth throughout the front 75% of the field that was eye opening.
The organisation was fantastic, and the facilities and infrastructure belie the relatively low entry cost compared with some other multi day stage races, I can only presume that it is heavily funded and supported by the local tourism authority and sponsors which are prominent everywhere. The whole event is based around a steep sided valley running from Fugen at one end to Mayrhofen at the other. With all start and finish town based on or around the valley road. So logistics are pretty easy, we stayed about half way between Mayrhofen and Zell am Ziller and everything was a short ride by bike with the exception of day one start in Fugen which we used the valley train which you get free access to, so logistically it's simple.

I think all riding has its place, I've done years on the road and all sorts of MTB ing, so we treated it as a massive challenge of climbing, so with our head around that it ticked all the boxes, its a stunning place, and the alpine scenery is just amazing. The last day is among the hardest day I've ever had on a bike, and I went to some really dark places in my head in the last 5k, would I do it again ? without putting the training that I did early this year, No..If I was as fit or fitter than this year, absolutely definitely Yes.

Happy to answer anything else you may want to know