 Alspach's conjecture, on the decomposition of a complete graph into cycles of given sizes, is related to the Oberwolfach problem, but neither is a special case of the other.If formula_5 is a 2-regular graph, with formula_6 vertices, formed from a disjoint union of cycles of certain lengths, then a solution to the Oberwolfach problem for formula_5 would also provide a decomposition of the complete graph into formula_31 copies of each of the cycles of formula_5.However, not every decomposition of formula_7 into this many cycles of each size can be grouped into disjoint cycles that form copies of formula_5, and on the other hand not every instance of Alspach's conjecture involves sets of cycles that have formula_31 copies of each cycle.