Overall, this is a much easier stage that the last few stages. However it packs a real punch between two miles and five miles, and that will probably still be in your legs when you hit the smaller climbs later on. For the fourth day in a row, the road climbs over a thousand feet. How the railway copes with some of this climbing I don’t know, because the stage follows the railway along the southern shore of Lake Baikal for its entire length.
The rollout from a position south east of Sukhoy Ruchey is initially downhill before a small up/down delivers you to the start of the bends just short of three miles: the next two miles climb five hundred feet. Once the highway crests the summit at 2200ft, the it drop back down the other side although the bends aren’t as tight on the downslope. By now, you’ve already cross the railway five times: the sixth time is at the start of a long right hander that meanders its way around the shoreline.
The next challenge is the set of hairpins between miles nine and eleven. The undulations are much less severe than the big climb at three miles, but they are annoying nonetheless. As the road passes through Utulikskoye at thirteen miles, it begins a long, lumpy gentle climb that take a course through Baykal’sk at nineteen miles before entering the long straight that sets up the finish.
The straight ends at twenty four miles on a left hander that sees the road start climbing all over again: however it’s not severe and once the road bends right shortly after, it’s downhill all the way to the finish.
Distance: 26 miles / 42 kilometres
Ascent: 1253 feet / 382 metres
RGT Magic Road: rvTkk4zPCWAv
Max elevation: 2212 ft
Min elevation: 1703 ft
Total climbing: 1255 ft
Total descent: -1155 ft
You must log in to post a comment.