Finally, after pretty much three stages without any, some civilisation! And not only that, but the railway crosses over to the left hand side of the road for a few miles in the middle of the stage! The excitement is overpowering. Climbing? Did I hear climbing? Yes, there’s plenty of that too.
The route is south easterly, as it has been for a while, and the rollout is initially uphill for a couple of miles. Then it descends gently to five miles before climbing around a right hander at six miles. After that the road descends to under three thousand feet for the first of two times on the stage, crossing the three thousand feet barrier at nine miles.
That kicks off the first proper climb of the stage, a three hundred foot, five mile climb back up to nearly three thousand three hundred feet, and the highest elevation of the stage by a distance.
Remember the railway crossing? It happens at fourteen miles when it goes from west (the right hand side of the road) to east (the left hand side). It crosses back at the start of stage 259 by the way.
Miles fifteen to twenty are supposed to be downhill, in that the route loses the three hundred feet it just gained, but there’s a nasty wee lump at seventeen miles to interrupt the descent. That said, the rest of the hill is fast and furious. That’s the good news, indeed all of it, because the final three miles to the finish are all uphill: save some energy in your legs because you’re going to need it.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 587 feet / 179 metres
RGT Magic Road: DutGlKgtY9Gm
Max elevation: 3248 ft
Min elevation: 2952 ft
Total climbing: 589 ft
Total descent: -588 ft
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