If you like hills, then you’ll like stage 39. It’s not brutal in the brutal sense, but it never stops testing your legs or your resolve. Yes, there are short periods of respite here and there, but if you leave the pen thinking that this is a 25 mile climb, then you won’t go far wrong. Actually, it’s 24.6 but we won’t split hairs over half a mile. In terms of geography, it’s north east for six miles then east/south east for the remaining eighteen. And in terms of the profile, most of the bigger climbs are in the first half, but most of the slog is in the second half. Make of that what you will.
The half mile downhill from the rollout is just there to fool you: so’s the longer one just before five miles. If you ride this with a load of bots, ranged from 75% to 90% of your FTP power, then you’re in for a right rollicking time. Bot attacks can be brutal and this is the perfect stage to test out that theory. Being caught out following the wrong wheel on one side of the road when the attack is launched on the other side will put you in trouble, especially when the bots just keep attacking, segment after segment.
But enough about the pain, let’s take a scenic view of the stage: through Lopuchowo at four miles to Slawica at six miles, the ATW route swaps route 196 for route 197 at the roundabout between Slawica and Stawa Wielkopolska and starts heading south east instead of north east. Rejowiec is at the top of the top of the biggest climb at seven miles before it runs lumpy flat to Pawlowo Skockie at ten miles. The highway then crosses the Mala Welna river not once but twice either side of Kiszkowo at halfway before making its way south east to run anti-clockwise around the southern shore of Jezioro Slawno lake at sixteen miles and into the town of Slawno itself a mile later.
The route hangs a long right hander through Slawno and emerges heading south east again, passes by Jezioro Lednica lake at eighteen miles and Komorowo at twenty miles, Owieczki at twenty one miles, with the lake of the same name on the left hand side of the road, precedes a straight run through Myslecin at twenty two miles and Strychowo a mile later on what is otherwise a rural landscape. The finish is in Braciszewo close to the main S5 autoroute and just a couple of miles short of the much larger town of Gniezno. The highest point on the stage, unsurprisingly for such a long slog, is at the finish, while the gong for the lowest elevation goes to Slawica where the road bends right at six miles.
Distance: 25 miles / 40 kilometres
Ascent: 492 feet / 150 metres
RGT Magic Road: wqQ49lVSkJu7
Max elevation: 1088 ft
Min elevation: 925 ft
Total climbing: 486 ft
Total descent: -356 ft
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