China kicks off with a bang and two uphill stages: Stage 265 carries on from where 264 finished off and adds another three hundred feet onto the elevation profile, taking it back up to levels last seen in the latter stages in Mongolia.
The rollout is straight and uphill for five miles until a long left hander maintains the gradient ahead of increasing it a tad at six miles as the bend unwinds. That unleashes another long straight, but this one is much flatter than its predecessor until a dip at twelve miles takes the road back down to the same elevation as at three miles.
But that’s a short lived respite because from fourteen miles through to the finish, the road climbs, then climbs again, and finally climbs some more as it approaches the finish. The gain in those final ten miles is three hundred feet, and your legs will no doubt be telling you about it by the end of the stage.
For the entirety of the stage, the route runs adjacent to the Erguang highway, with the railway line beyond that. The railway begins the stage around two miles to the left (east) of the road but from seventeen miles, the road, the highway and the railway all run side by side.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 459 feet / 140 metres
RGT Magic Road: eSXYjpNO1SoI
Max elevation: 3698 ft
Min elevation: 3402 ft
Total climbing: 461 ft
Total descent: -156 ft
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