317’s every bit as straight as stage 316, and it was completely straight. This stage is a rollicking, lumpy, ever so slightly downhill powerfest that descents sixty feet more than it ascends, which is less than two hundred feet.
As has become the norm these last few stages, there’s precious little by way of landmarks to give the route some character: it’s just another twenty four miles across the Nullibor Plain, but at least this stage has a name at the finish, as it stands just before the Caiguna Blowhole, which is itself just before (ie to the west of) Caiguna itself.
The rollout is flat for three miles to a junction that takes a dirt road north into the bush. That’s followed by a short gentle climb before the road becomes flat again. It’s then flat to five miles where a down and up over the course of a mile returns you to more of the same. Once the next down/up is out of the way, at nine miles, the Eyre Highway begins its gentle descent.
That lasts until twelve miles where a one mile ascent regains some of the lost elevation. But that merely sets up another gentle descent that runs to twenty miles, passing by another dirt road north into the bush at eighteen miles. Thereafter the descent just continues, punctuated by odd climbs, but none of them are long and none of them are testing. This really is a stage for getting the power down.
Distance: 23 miles / 37 kilometres
Ascent: 174 feet / 53 metres
RGT Magic Road: jMo02okRNYcn
Max elevation: 385 ft
Min elevation: 306 ft
Total climbing: 175 ft
Total descent: -243 ft
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