Ha! Here’s another right slow burner with an adrenaline rush in the tail.
Eight miles of basically flat road precedes nine miles of climbing in which the route gains two hundred and fifty feet of elevation as the gradient increases with every pedal stroke. But once the road’s over the top at seventeen miles, it’s a speedfest down the other side, save for a wee fifty foot kickback with three miles to go. Then ironically, after all that pain and fun, the stage finishes at pretty much the same elevation it started at.
The stage rollouts out from Batenhosrt, south of Rheda-Wiedenbruck, and as route 64 loops anti-clockwise around the latter, so it arrives at the major intersection where route 64 meets the main autoroute 2. But instead of negotiating the intersection, the ATW route pulls a trick by turning right onto the altogether less busy route 61 which immediately crosses under autoroute 2 and heads straight and north east towards Gutersloh.
The highway arrives at the Kattenstroth district of Gutersloh at six miles, having crossed the Wapelbach river a mile earlier. The road bends left at Kattenstroh and crosses the Dalkeh river at eight miles at the start of a big clockwise loop around Gutersloh, emerging on the other side at the start of the climb.
As the climb gets going, the road passes between Isselhorst on the left (north west) and Avenwedde on the right (south east). It then runs straight and north east, passing by Ummeln at fourteen miles before crossing autoroute 33 straight after. As the road approaches Bielefeld, it gives up the tag of route 61 which hangs a right before curving left and over the ATW route which is now on the Gutersloher Staber, and it’s after that junction, where the road takes a right/left/right combo of bends, that the stage attains its highest elevation.
The route revisits Highway 61 (see what I did there?) on the north eastern side of the city centre then proceeds to head out of town, still heading north east, past Baumheide, over the Johannisbach river and onward to the district of Brake where the finish line is at the junction left into the town.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 433 feet / 132 metres
RGT Magic Road: dUo6nZRTZ5NK
Max elevation: 847 ft
Min elevation: 594 ft
Total climbing: 429 ft
Total descent: -422 ft
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