This is an interesting stage because on first glance at the elevation profile, it looks like a bit of a brute. But all things are relative and in actual fact the climb that looks like a real challenge rises less than a hundred and fifty feet in four miles. So if that’s the worst that it has to offer, then consider this a stage where you can afford to get the hammer down for long stretches. It runs up the coast of the Bay of Biscay at a meandering four or five miles from the sea, trundling up the D652 Route des Lacs, and true to form, there is one right at the finish.
The rollout from Lisacq does a quick up/down in the blink of an eye, then it’s flat through Lil et Mixe, Barrot and Cap de He before crossing the Courant de Contis and the Ruisseau de la Canotte in quick succession at three miles. They eventually merge with a bunch of other rivers and flow out into the Bay of Biscay at Contis six or seven miles west of the road. The road then puts on fifty feet as it climbs past a small lake on the left before descending back down, taking the left hander into Saint Julien en Born and crossing the Ruisseau de Mezoz river after four miles. It offers the lowest elevation of the stage and the start of the longest climb.
As the road begins to rise, it passes by the camp site of Camping Le vieux Moulin before crossing the Le Courtis river. At the same spot, the D41 heads left (west) to Contis and the D167 right (east) to Mezos. The road climbs through Mourret at five miles, then hangs a gentle right as it crosses the Rousseau de Petuille near Garat at seven miles. The summit, and indeed the highest point on the stage, is on the approach to Bas at eight miles where the D652 crosses the Rousseau du Bourg as it swings left then right through the town.
Then the descent kicks in. It’s neither as long nor as low at the bottom as it was at the start, but it is relatively straight. It passes through Archus at eleven miles and Salin at twelve miles before bottoming out on arriving at Mimizan where the route takes a right off the D652 onto the D67 Rue de Lamaree. Having made the turn, the road then crosses the Ruisseau de Noire Dame and the Ruisseau de Robichon as it heads north west out of town and past Lamiraout on the right.
The large Lac d’Aureilhan is on the left by Aureilhan itself at fifteen miles and the east/north easterly tack around the lake takes the route over the Ruisseau d’Escource and into Saint Paul en Born at seventeen miles. There, the route once again becomes the D652 on a left hander in the centre of town. That turn leaves the route north west heading back out towards the coast, not that it will get there having come further inland during the stage, and the finish is just after Plecq near to the junction of the Rue de Labadan, which rather aptly goes to Labadan.
Distance: 20 miles / 32 kilometres
Ascent: 249 feet / 76 metres
RGT Magic Road: CthLzVLZQj2X
Max elevation: 152 ft
Min elevation: 28 ft
Total climbing: 250 ft
Total descent: -238 ft
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