Stage 225 is another cracker along the southern shore of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia: and the great thing about this stage is that by halfway, you’ve done all the hard work and can look forward to a manic, fast second half. As with most of the recent stages, the road follows the railway line on its journey east, and manages to do so just north of the mountains that would otherwise have made this stage a completely different proposition.
The rollout is downhill for a mile before a short climb takes you left/right/left around a bunch of curves. The route then settles down into a gentle incline as it enters the forest, kicking right at four miles as it does so. That’s followed by a long looping left hander that delivers you to the bottom of ‘the climb’. The road climbs three hundred feet between miles six and ten before cresting the summit at a double crossing of the railway, just a few hundred metres apart.
Thereafter, the road re-enters the forest on a long straight that initiates a long descent from the ten mile mark. Halfway down the descent, at fifteen miles, the road kicks left then right as it passes by Vydrino, which doubles up as the border between Irkutsk Oblast and the Republic of Buryatia. The descent continues after crossing the border, taking a long left hander around the edge of the lake from nineteen miles where the descent flattens out for a couple of miles. There’s a further railway crossing at twenty two miles where another gentle descent begins, and that one delivers the finishing straight right on the shore of the lake.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 515 feet / 157 metres
RGT Magic Road: psP3ZWlIIe69
Max elevation: 2181 ft
Min elevation: 1766 ft
Total climbing: 512 ft
Total descent: -582 ft
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