Strap yourself in: here’s another lumpy bumpy climber. There’s virtually no flat road so you’ll either be struggling up the hills or flying down them. The focal point of the stage is Coonabaraban where the Newell Highway crosses the Castlereagh River, but either side of that are some testing climbs and respiteful descents.
The rollout is downhill but that doesn’t last long: the first climb kicks in at the Mendooran Road junction after just a mile and even though you drop down off the summit of that at two miles, there’s an even more testing climb waiting in the wings at three miles. It has false summits at both four and five miles before a short descent drops down to the next leg of the climb at six miles where the link road heads west to Coonabaraban Airport.
The A39 takes a long left hand curve at seven miles before the final part of this climb begins as the road bends back right at eight miles. The run into Coonabaraban itself is downhill courtesy of the need to cross the Castlereagh River but no sooner has that happened than the climbing starts all over again, lumpy at first before the gradient really gets its act together at fourteen miles. That climb tops out at the end of a two mile long straight where the road hangs a right around Burra Bee Dee at seventeen miles.
The highway then loops right/left/right on a descent that runs from seventeen miles all the way to the finish: six miles in all. The road also straightens out as it descends and you should get a good sight of the finish line just after the Narawa Road junction heading west.
Distance: 23 miles / 37 kilometres
Ascent: 1227 feet / 374 metres
RGT Magic Road: lqFLYfSnyRf6
Max elevation: 1926 ft
Min elevation: 1434 ft
Total climbing: 1227 ft
Total descent: -1025 ft
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