If stage 98 was a wee rollercoaster, then stage 99 is its bigger brother.
The rollout from Sovkhoznny on the eastern side of Ivan’kovskoye heads uphill virtually straight out of the pen. The climb is four miles to Suchkovo, after which the road dives downhill sharply to cross the river Unga at Malyye Tyumerli. As with the previous stages, a major feature of stage 99 is the ongoing elevation away from, and diving back down to river crossings: rivers criss cross this area of Russia with annoying regularity.
The river Unga is followed by the Orbashka at nine miles then the Chernaya just before eleven miles. The rivers make up for the lack of towns in this part of Russia as the M7 heads relentlessly east. The road passes by Yunginskoy to the north at fourteen miles, and that marks the start of the most serious climb of the day, a two hundred foot affair spread over three miles.
That climb crests at Ivanovka at eighteen miles, which is followed by a steady descent that gets steeper after the road passes by Moskakasinskoye at twenty miles. Kalmykovo passes at twenty two miles, before a rapid descent down to the adjacent river Yelachka, which the road doesn’t actually cross, sets up a testing uphill finish on the approach to Kalaykasy. The climb gains a hundred feet on the approach to the line before the roads dips back down at the finish.
Distance: 24 miles / 38 kilometres
Ascent: 840 feet / 256 metres
RGT Magic Road: LUbiyQPYeQOR
Max elevation: 804 ft
Min elevation: 564 ft
Total climbing: 841 ft
Total descent: -759 ft
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