Sixteen years ago the idea of the "Alpen-Triathlon" was born. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sixtus Company with a sporting event, we decided to organise a triathlon which was an upcoming sport in those days. Being endowed with beautiful nature and the advantages of a hilly countryside the Sixtus Alpen-Triathlon should become a race with unique character. Therefore we were looking for a very demanding bicycle track. The running track should be equal to that in every way. The course leads to a beautiful valley (the Valepp) and back around the Spitzingsee and is probably one of the toughest at all.

Not to strain the athletes to much the track length was limited to 1 km swimming, 30 km cycling and 10 km running. In 1988 the first Alpen-Triathlon took place in order to test for the upcoming jubilee race. The male competition was indicating the successful future of the Alpen-Triathlon with the Brazilian Roger de Moraes and some other top-athletes from those days on the starting line. The female competition, in contrast, represented rather a familiar and easy going race. The track itself and the event as a whole has been attracted more and more with interest. Only the shorter distance was criticised. Due to that the bicycle track was lengthened via Deining, Nicklasreuth and Sonnenreuth to an overall distance of 40 km. Ten demanding kilometres which make - together with the legendary ascend (14 %) to the Spitzingsattel - the bicycle track one of the hardest but also most beautiful in the world.

In 1989 the race to the 50th anniversary of the Sixtus company was such an enormous success, that it became crystal clear, that the Alpen-Triathlon has to be continued. Attracted by the unique track an increasing number of athletes participated in Schliersee. Very soon the cream of the triathlon circus joined the event as well. In 1991 Rob Barel, the overall dominating athlete in Europe at that time, celebrated his first victory in Schliersee. The Dutchman became an institution of the event. He participated six times and managed to win three of them. In the meanwhile the level of the female competition was also increasing. Victories by German top athletes like Brigitte Scheithauer, Ute Schäfer and Sabine Westhoff were following.

In 1995 the Sixtus Alpen-Triathlon became an ETU-Prestige Cup. One year after that, the race reached the highest level in European triathlon. From now on the Sixtus Alpen-Triathlon has been part of the ETU-Cup series. Top athtletes like Simon Lessing, Dmitriy Gaag, Olivier Marceau, Joanne King and Natascha Badmann (sorry for all the big names weI have not mentioned) showed up on the start line. And they all agree: The Sixtus Alpen-Triathlon, with its beauty and challenges, has developed to a highlight of the triathlon season. Despite of that the event has not lost its original character. In addition to the top athletes an increasing number of hobby-athletes participate in the Schliersee Triathlon in search of one thing: an incomparable adventure.