The last full stage in Alberta continues on east/south east on Highway 9 from east of Youngstown to west of Dyen. It’s a lumpy stage with virtually no flat road and although the first half could be described as lumpy and calm, the same certainly can’t be said of the second half: it carries a payload of climbing with a long five mile climb to the finish.
The rollout is straight, gently uphill and lumpy for seven miles. The summit of the initial climb is at Range Road 80 approaching a right/left squiggle of bends before a gentle but lumpy descent takes Highway 9 to Range Road 71 at twelve miles.
With the relatively calm nature of the stage now at an end, a short sharp climb kicks in: a hundred feet of ascent in just half a mile. However the descent on the other side is equally dramatic, and more, with the road reaching the lowest elevation of the stage at fifteen miles, and that’s where the proper climbing begins.
Miles fifteen to twenty one are uphill, or perhaps that should read lumpy and uphill because that’s what it is. The trend is significantly up but there are several pockets of respite along the way that make the climb more bearable but be in no uncertain terms that the gradient increases the further up the climb you go. The summit, which is also the highest elevation of the stage, is just after twenty miles, and the road falls away steeply after that to the finishing line just after Range Road 60.
Distance: 22 miles / 35 kilometres
Ascent: 544 feet / 166 metres
RGT Magic Road: iTrtajYVCjUC
Max elevation: 2597 ft
Min elevation: 2421 ft
Total climbing: 549 ft
Total descent: -419 ft
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