With Toowoomba and all of that climbing firmly in the rear view mirror, the last three stages of the Australian leg of Around The World head east on towards Brisbane. Stage 429 is the first of those stages and it continues where 428 left off: descending from eight hundred feet at the start to just over two hundred by the finish. However it’s a lumpy descent and for a stage that boasts a six hundred foot drop, four hundred feet of climbing cannot be dismissed out of hand.
The rollout is downhill and featureless until the A21 merges with the A2 to become the A2 Warrego Highway after three miles. The road enters Heildon at five miles, where the descent stops for a while and is replaced by a five mile section of lumpy flat tarmac: the lumps are typically between thirty and fifty feet up and down so they’re not to be sneezed at: they are annoying and will test your patience as well as your legs.
After Heildon, it’s not until ten miles, south of the Lockyer State Forest, the the descent resumes. The next gentle downhill section loops around the north of Gatton, still on the A2, then there’s more lumpy stuff for a further couple of miles. However from sixteen miles there’s a nice gentle seven mile descent that’s not lumpy, all the way to the finish east of the University of Queensland Gatton Campus. The finish itself is midway between the University and the town of Plainland.
Distance: 23 miles / 37 kilometres
Ascent: 440 feet / 134 metres
RGT Magic Road: CE8KFRMdIBE4
Max elevation: 760 ft
Min elevation: 244 ft
Total climbing: 440 ft
Total descent: -936 ft
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