The routes are across two medium mountain ranges: Schwarzwald and Schwäbische Alb. They work as bikepacking or credit card touring. Plenty of climbing, but no other challenges (resupply is trivial). Largely smooth surface (forest service roads closed to general traffic), small sprinkling of single track, not too much pavement. Good beginner routes, or for shake down, or even for family vacation. Could be combined into a single loop and you can challenge yourself by ITTing it as the combination would be about like the CTR in terms of distance and climbing (but soooo much easier otherwise). Write up here (has links to more info and GPX files):
http://rolandsturm.blogspot.com/2015/07/mountain-bike-schwaebische-alb-and.html