The last full day in the Urdmurt Republic and one that you won’t forget in a while. Stage 118 will bite your legs.
The rollout from Zurinskoye is quite inconspicuous and even though the road rises slightly as it takes a steady left hander approaching the forest after two miles, there is nothing to concern you at this stage. The trouble lies further down the road. Approaching Badzimoshur at five miles, the M7 is gently undulating, but it’s nothing to worry about. The road’s also pretty straight as it skirts the forest on its left hand side.
There’s a dip at eight miles with the crossing of the Irymka river and the Il river. That’s followed by a short rise and another descent down to cross the Cheptsa river near Malaya Cheptsa at thirteen miles.
Then it all kicks off. The next two miles carry a payload of eight hundred feet of climbing. The curious bit is that at the top of the climb, the highway crosses the Chepsta again, and the Medlo, which suggests that the water’s flowing against the direction of cycling. The top of the climb, at fifteen miles, is adjacent to Debessskoye to the north.
The descent down the other side is almost as spectacular as the climb up, losing nearly all of the hard earned elevation over the course of four miles. It includes another crossing of the Chepsta at nineteen miles but the descent continues pretty much all the way to the finish. There’s a a gentle rebound upwards a mile from the finish, but that’s really nothing to worry the scorers.
Your legs will be feeling it after this: welcome to the Ural mountains, the gateway to Siberia.
Distance: 22 miles / 35 kilometres
Ascent: 1263 feet / 385 metres
RGT Magic Road: eX5M9T3zfpQL
Max elevation: 1401 ft
Min elevation: 576 ft
Total climbing: 1264 ft
Total descent: -1159 ft
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