Ouch! Stage 212 might not be the biggest climber of the journey to date but it’s sure to leave a sting in your legs. There’s a lot more up than down, and the ups are longer, steeper and more frequent than the downs. Also, the stage finishes two hundred and fifty feet higher than it starts.
It’s best to ignore the gentle downhill start because from half a mile into the stage, you’ll be climbing as the route rounds a right hander in the forest. That’s followed by a two mile straight, passing by Azeyskoye and running parallel with the railway line.
The climbing kicks in in earnest at five miles as the road enters a long left hander that takes the trajectory north east for a few miles. In real terms, the climb is thirteen miles long, passing through Sheragul’skoye along the way, but it’s interspersed with a lot of sharp descents that offer respite as well as more opportunities to regain the elevation you just lost: put it this way: the elevation at five miles is 1480ft: the elevation at eighteen miles is 1680ft, despite there being no fewer than eight descents along the way.
You could be forgiven for hoping the the summit at sixteen miles attains the highest elevation of the stage but sadly that’s not the case: that’s reserved for the finish line. Once you’ve crossed the railway by Tulyushskoye at eighteen miles, the route re-establishes a south easterly direction and starts a lumpy descent that doesn’t bottom out until the junction to Ukhovskoye at twenty three miles, and that’s where the final killer climb kicks in: the final mile climbs a hundred and fifty feet as the road re-enters the forest on approach to the finish line.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 755 feet / 230 metres
RGT Magic Road: HMJzn0KA58oz
Max elevation: 1679 ft
Min elevation: 1446 ft
Total climbing: 756 ft
Total descent: -521 ft
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