Stage 17 – Vieting to Ahlen

Stage seventeen’ll get the blood pumping round your pipework!

Straight from the off, you’re looking at a testing four mile climb before the route flies back down the other side over less distance to leave the elevation profile pretty much where it started by six miles with eighteen still to go. The big lumpy start is in stark contrast to the remainder of the stage which is relatively flat until twenty one miles where a gentle rise takes the stage through to the finish.

The rollout from Vieting is straight, north east and uphill until route 58 reaches Seppenrade where the climb peaks at four miles. There, the route swings a big looping left/right/left in a clockwise detour around the northern perimeter of the town before crossing the Dortmund-Ems canal and rolling into Ludinghausen after six miles on an easterly tack.

The road rises for a couple of miles on leaving Ludinghausen but by ten miles, it’s flat and remains that way as it weaves left and right through Ascheberg at fourteen miles, over the main autoroute 1 a mile later and onward to Drensteinfurt at nineteen miles. Still heading east, the road crosses the Werse river twice, once on the northern side of the town on arrival, and again a mile later on the eastern side on departure. From there, the road and the river head east/south east in roughly the same direction, with the river on the northern (left) side of the road.

The gentle four mile climb to the finish begins where route 58 hangs a left away from route 63 east of Drensteinfurt. As the river stays north of the hill, the road goes straight over the top of it towards Ahlen, which will feature at the start of stage eighteen and where the road and the river meet again. The road climbs through Brockhausen at twenty three miles, flattens briefly, then kicks up again to the finish which is a couple of miles west of Ahlen.

Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres

Ascent: 397 feet / 121 metres

RGT Magic Road: 4jsta0yNEJI6

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