And so the journey inland begins for real. Actually it’s not by choice but by necessity because further up the coast, north of Bordeaux, there’s the estuary of the combined La Dordogne and La Garonne rivers out into the Bay of Biscay and there’s no crossing point near the cost beyond Bordeaux. Consequently, the route of stage 782 makes an early start away from the coast and tacks north east away from Sanguinet and the Etang de Cazaux Sanguinet lake. In doing so, it manages to keep the elevation profile largely under control and only throws up two hundred feet of climbing, which is virtually all compressed into one climb just after halfway.
The rollout is straight and flat to Caudos at five miles where the road dips slightly and the route swaps the D216 for the D108 Route de Villemore. That results in the road heading east, and descending to Salles at ten miles where it crosses the L’Eyre river on the way into town. After the river, the route does a right/left/right shimmy through the town centre before emerging to head east once more, but this time uphill towards Perrin.
The climb is at its steepest at the start, but the run through Perrin is as steep as it gets. Thereafter the gradient slowly eases and by the time the road crosses over the main A63 highway at twelve miles (where it also crosses the La Planquette river) and subsequently rolls into Lavignolle three miles later, the climb’s as good as over. There are two summits: the first one’s a tease at Thiot just north of Lavignolle because the road dips into Le Barp two miles later, and there, after hanging a sharp right onto the D5 Avenue de Gascogne, it starts rising again.
The road’s only on the D5 for a short distance because after coming out of Le Barp, the route hangs a left onto the D108 and heads east through Chantier before curving left again and it’s on that corner that the second summit claims the prize for the highest elevation of the stage. It’s a good moment to peak because at twenty miles, there’s not much left of the stage and the final two miles are north east, straight and gently downhill to the finish. In total there are just over two hundred feet up and just under two hundred feet down so it’s probably a ‘get the hammer down’ job.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 220 feet / 67 metres
RGT Magic Road: 98pdFVSFep23
Max elevation: 195 ft
Min elevation: 30 ft
Total climbing: 219 ft
Total descent: -173 ft
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