Two very different races. Here's every stat, side by side, to help you pick.
Indicative — based on GPX data. Both courses normalised to start at 0m.
✓ marks the better number on that stat.
Berlin's flat Tiergarten loop and Cape Town's Table Mountain backdrop make for one of the starkest contrasts between any two Majors. Cape Town carries 265m of elevation gain — more than four times Berlin's — as the course winds along the coast and into the city with the mountain as a constant presence.
Both are ballot-entry Majors, but Cape Town's field is far smaller (around 18,500 finishers against Berlin's near-50,000), making it the more intimate of the two despite the Majors status both now share. Berlin in late September is built for a fast, flat record attempt; Cape Town in May trades pace for scenery and a genuinely harder climb profile. If speed is the goal, Berlin is the clear call; if you want a Major with real elevation and one of the most photogenic backdrops in the sport, Cape Town delivers something Berlin can't.