Of all of the stages to date, stage 82 feels like the biggest deal, because apart from stage 1 that left from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, stage 82 is the first to ride right into the heart of a big city, and they don’t come much bigger or more strategically important than Moscow.
The rollout is from Buzlanovo, about twenty miles west of Moscow. The initial route is to the north east, and mainly gently downhill before the road swings right to head south east as it crosses the Moskva river (the river Moscow) after seven miles. Another right hander, which is actually a slip road at a major highway interchange, takes you directly south and uphill, from miles seven to thirteen. That’s the longest climb of the stage, but not the most testing.
The intersection at thirteen miles is the meeting of two major four lane highways, a scary proposition on a bike which sadly won’t be played out as such on RGT. However it represents a major shift in both direction and elevation because it reverts the journey to a direct approach into the heart of the city on a four mile descent that’s not dissimilar to the one from earlier at mile three.
After a gentle two mile rise, you re-cross the Moskva not once but twice as the route enters the ring road around the heart of the city centre. The first crossing, at twenty miles, boasts an elevation fifty feet higher than the second a mile and a half later. There is a third crossing two miles further on but as the stage finishes immediately before the bridge, you get to experience the climb away from the second crossing but not the descent back down to the third. That final climb of a hundred and fifty feet in the last mile of the stage will certainly test the legs more than anything else that has gone before on the stage.
An iconic stage on an epic journey.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 505 feet / 154 metres
RGT Magic Road: M6v8piLXarH7
Max elevation: 1029 ft
Min elevation: 727 ft
Total climbing: 502 ft
Total descent: -613 ft
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