It would have been nice to have said that stage 405 finishes at the Parkes Observatory, but for that I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait until stage 406 and gaze to your right early on in the stage. 405 is a climber, and a pretty relentless one at that too. It gains over eight hundred feet on the stage and descends only half of that.
The rollout is gently uphill on a left hand bend that passes by Daroobalgie at two miles and the rest area of the same name shortly after. The climb gathers more gradient at three miles and goes over the first of many summits at five miles. There’s then a down/up before a descent that bottoms out at nine miles.
The second climb starts where the Newell Highway loops around the train station at Tichborne before crossing the line on the far side. The climb gains more bite at twelve miles just after Billabong Creek rest area but then it descends again from miles thirteen to fifteen.
A feature of the climbs is that each takes the elevation to a higher level than the previous one and the summit at sixteen miles, as the A39 approaches Parkes, is the third one to claim the prize of the highest elevation of the stage to date: but it won’t be the last, such is the nature of the stage.
The road climbs again as it passes through the town, attaining over thirteen hundred feet by the nineteen mile mark at the Station Motel. There’s then a lumpy gentle descent to twenty one miles, but once the road gets within a mile of the finish, the incline kicks again and the highest elevation of the stage is reserved for half a mile short of the finishing line: but at least that guarantees a downhill run to the line, even though it’s short.
Distance: 22 miles / 35 kilometres
Ascent: 863 feet / 263 metres
RGT Magic Road: SBsLgn8hRvDn
Max elevation: 1319 ft
Min elevation: 836 ft
Total climbing: 862 ft
Total descent: -416 ft
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