Interesting. I have a Tour de France which will be postable soon (I've done 4 Vueltas but only 1 Tour, & this one is intended to be a bit less OTT - the last one used practically zero classic climbs, bypassed the Midi-Pyrenées entirely and had some climbs which are maybe ok for the Giro or Vuelta but would not be practicable for the Tour at all) which also includes some nods to the past.
Stage 8: Gotha - Weimar, 231km
Climbs:
Kleiner Inselsberg (cat.1) 5,5km @ 6,4%
Rotteroder Höhe (cat.2) 3,6km @ 5,0%
Ruppberg (cat.2) 4,7km @ 5,1%
Rondell (cat.1) 5,0km @ 5,3%
Schmücke (cat.1) 5,8km @ 5,8%
Allzunah (cat.2) 6,0km @ 3,5%
Falkenhügel (cat.2) 4,4km @ 7,0%
Sommerberg (cat.2) 2,9km @ 5,9%
Großer Hund (cat.2) 3,0km @ 6,0%
Riechheimer Berg (cat.2) 1,5km @ 7,9%
Balsamine (cat.2) 1,6km @ 5,9%
Balsamine (cat.2) 1,6km @ 5,9%
Here we have the longest stage of the Peace Race, and a very important stage for the mountains classification with no fewer than 12 categorized climbs on the route. The stage also minimizes the requirement for transfers, given that both the start and finish points are very close to yesterday's stage finish town, although rather than a very short point-to-point, instead here we have a very long looping stage through the Thüringer Wald. The stage also links a few bits of German history. Gotha is the birthplace of the German social democratic movement, as well as the town from which the Sachs-Coburg und Gotha royal house that ruled many lands and is still in "power" in some European countries stemmed; Weimar should require no introduction as a beloved literary and cultural city (Goethe and Schiller both lived here, as later did Liszt, and later still the Bauhaus movement), and even less of one as the birthplace of the doomed inter-war democracy in post-Wilhelmine Germany.
But back to the cycling: today the climbing starts early. After a week of flat cobbles and similar agony, the hilly guys will be in action today, and in order to start to recoup losses, they're going to need to go hard & distance as many of the rouleurs as they can. There are no real monsters - however even if the gradients don't hurt too much the recovery time will be very limited & cumulative effect may take hold. There are 15km of false flat to introduce the stage, then it begins. The
Großer Inselsberg is the 4th highest mountain in the Thüringer Wald, however we're only climbing to its shoulder, forgoing the dead-end road to the summit (this forms 1,5km on
cobbles!). Our climb is basically the first 5,5km of
this, so the toughest part is in the middle.
The descent is two-stepped, there is a small but uncategorized climb in the midst of the descent. We then have a series of climbs backing onto one another, with
Rotteroder Höhe and the
Ruppberg following in quick succession before the first intermediate in
Zella-Mehlis. This leads straight into the sometimes
sweeping and steep ascent of the
Rondell, which has overall fairly unthreatening statistics but
1,5km @ 9,5% buried in the middle. This takes us to the popular wintersports centre of
Oberhof, once the DDR's jewel in the crown for wintersports, known for its
ski jump and its
biathlon arena, known for horrendous weather conditions. Come on, I had to get biathlon in there somewhere.
Backing immediately on from that is the climb to the small village of
Schmücke, which sits just beneath the summit of the
Großer Beerberg, the tallest mountain in the region. It is also the last category 1 climb of the day, with its steepest parts
being stretches of around 10% near the bottom. A quirk of the Peace Race's mountains classification is that there's actually a cat.2 climb later that I would argue is harder, but is under 5km in length & doesn't merit the special consideration that the race would give for climbs averaging over 10% (Teufelstein got to be cat.1 for this reason). We're only 1/3 of the way through the stage, but I'm expecting a large & strong break, so the chase could be frenetic which will have an impact later.
Things ease up a bit from here; a 15km descent which is gradual yields into the climb of
Allzunah, just 3,5% in average gradient, then there's a period spent on a plateau, broken up by our second sprint prime, in
Neustadt am Rennsteig. A longish descent (for the area) takes us to the base of the steepest climb of the day (the aforementioned tougher climb), a
scenic wooded climb which can be
pretty steep at times called Falkenhügel. It falls short of 5km, but the
final 2km average 9,7%, which is hardly inconsiderable!
After this, however, the big climbs are over, so it's time for the groups to take stock of where they are and race accordingly. The break will undoubtedly have duked out the mountains jersey by this point, but where are the contenders, how much help will they have at this point? The small rise to Sommerberg comes next, before a long uncategorized drag, finishing at
Paulinzella. We then have the stage's final intermediate, in the small town of
Stadtilm with almost 70km to go. At this point the Classics men will take over as favourites. The Großer Hund is next, an inconsistent 3km ascent which reaches up to
15%, but after this there are some 20km of narrow, winding roads which will enable attack groups to push on, chasers to chase, etc.
Endgame starts with 40km remaining, when the riders hit the slopes of the short but steep
Riechheimer Berg. Warning: we only take on the first half of that profile, the second half is slightly different as that climb goes to the Gaststätte which entails turning off the Katzenberg road to the south. The riders are then rewarded with a narrow, tricky descent, followed by 15 more kms of awkward, twisty downhill false flat via
Bad Berka to Buchfart, where the big ending takes place.
At 1600m in length, averaging 5,9%, the climb to the Waldgasthaus
Balsamine is hardly super-imposing. That kind of statistic only makes it sound like the Cauberg (which, truth be told, isn't an inappropriate comparison); the toughest stretch is
300m at 9,5%. However, what the Balsamine climb does have that makes this a key moment, is
Kopfsteinpflaster. Yes, the caption reads "fast wie in Flandern", that's not a bad call either.
Steep, cobbled roads are of course the preserve of the northern Classics, and here we will be climbing this ascent twice, on a short tight circuit which also features
narrow, slabbed roads and so the first ascent tops out with 18km remaining; the second with just 7,2km to go, the first half of which is narrow and tricky, then we pass
Schloß Belvedere and after this it is wide, fast and straight into Kulturstadt Weimar, however the final kilometre is quite technical, with first a sharp right onto the cobbled
Ackerwand, then a left at
Platz der Demokratie with about 250m to go to finish at the scenic
Marktplatz. A picturesque and fitting end to what should have been a very difficult day in the saddle.
Gotha:
Weimar:
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