The stage kicks off with an immediate crossing of the Oka river, which can only mean one thing: a climb straight after it. The ascent begins at the interchange between the M7 Volga highway (our road) and the Liniya Bereg highway that’s heading south west out of (or north east into) Nizhniy Novgorod.
The climb is just over five miles, gaining two hundred feet, peaking at Krutets as the road swings south east from a previous southerly projection. The climb is followed by an equally sharp descent down to Lis’i Yamki at eight miles. The road swings east for a while and crosses the north/south P158 highway just after Yuzhnoye: that marks the start of the second climb of the day.
As the road climbs up past Novyye Klyuchishchi, it dips in and out of the forest before eventually cresting just before the junction to Bol’shemokrinskiy to the north and Semet to the south. The descent off the hill drops you back down to the crossing of the Shelokshonka river at the western side of Kamenka before the road takes a sharpish left hander and winds its way back uphill to the finish on the eastern side of the town.
At almost six hundred feet of climbing, the stage marks the start of more difficult times ahead as the journey moves into more testing terrain.
Distance: 23 miles / 37 kilometres
Ascent: 594 feet / 181 metres
RGT Magic Road: 7Gg6MyzxbB26
Max elevation: 472 ft
Min elevation: 230 ft
Total climbing: 591 ft
Total descent: -488 ft
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