Three and a half big lumps and lots of little ones: that’s the script that underpins stage 129.
The rollout in the forest from Il’yata is undulating but uphill. Definitely uphill. There are a couple of false summits at one and a half and three and a half miles, but you don’t really crest that first climb until you exit the forest a mile after the junction to Afanas’yevskoye: five and a half miles basically.
You then get to descend past Tyush to the river of the same name, which you cross at ten miles. That comes at the end of a lumpy flat section that spans three miles, from one forested section to the next. After the Tyush crossing, you start climbing all over again, gently at first to Sazhina at twelve miles, before the gradient tightens on its way to the highest elevation of the day, 1350 feet (411 metres) at fifteen miles.
That’s followed by another long downhill section, three miles this time, to the crossing of the Put river at eighteen miles. Crossing water means climbing up the other side of course, especially when there are still six miles to go on the stage.
The road passes by the junction to Klenovskoye just before twenty one miles, and that’s the signal to start descending again. That one’s short lived however, because another climb kicks off at twenty two miles: it’s not severe but it’s enough to further strain your tired legs. However the last mile, thankfully, is downhill and the finishing line comes into view just after you exit the forest.
At just shy of twelve hundred feet (365 metres) of climbing, this stage is a tester. You’ll be thankful when it’s over.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 1198 feet / 365 metres
RGT Magic Road: DjvsFfCYq4ic
Max elevation: 1352 ft
Min elevation: 851 ft
Total climbing: 1197 ft
Total descent: -893 ft
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