Tour of Russia Stage 6: Krasnodar (Краснодар) - Tuapse (Туапсе), 179km
Climbs:
Молдавановский Перевал (Moldavanovsky Pereval)(cat.2) 2,4km @ 6,2%
Дефановка (Defanovka)(cat.3) 1,0km @ 5,8%
Новомихайловский Перевал (Novomikhailovsky Pereval)(cat.2) 4,8km @ 3,6%
Агойский Перевал (Agoysky Pereval)(cat.2) 4,0km @ 4,6%
Киевская (Kievskaya)(cat.3) 1,6km @ 7,7%
Intermediate Sprints:
Горячий Ключ (Goryachiy Klyuch), 52km
Джубгя (Dzhubga), 112km
Небуг (Nebug), 151km
After a long transfer to the southwest corner of the country, the p?loton faces a tough stage in the Tour of Russia where wind and hills are on the menu, and this has the potential to be somewhere between a moderate hilly stage and Milan-San Remo in style. Obviously it's quite a bit shorter than La Primavera, but the overall pattern is fairly similar.
Starting in the largest urban area of the region and the region's main economic hub, Krasnodar, the riders swiftly head southwards towards the Black Sea coast. The most direct route would be to head, as in the GP Sochi most years, to Novorossiysk, however we're heading further south along the coast than that. The first half of the stage is fairly straightforward, though much of it is uphill flat drag; there is the small matter of the first intermediate sprint in the affluent town of
Goryachiy Klyuch, gateway to the Kavkaz mountains; in likelihood the break will get this, but with the stages to come, some more versatile all-rounders who are high in the GC could set their men to control this so that they can duke it out. After this the road starts to head upwards for real, and we get
some pretty epic scenery on our way up an otherwise fairly punchy climb before a long and very gradual descent towards the sea interrupted by a shorter, less demanding climb on
equally impressive roads at Defanovka.
Just before reaching the Black Sea, the second intermediate sprint takes place at the beach resort town of
Dzhubga, after which the riders spend the rest of the stage - around 70km - almost entirely side-on to the coast and waiting to be battered by cross-winds coming across from the south east. There are some
mighty scenic stretches on this road, which also ramps up and down on its
coastal grind. Only one gradual climb is worth categorizing before, at 28km remaining, the riders pass through the final intermediate in the well-known town of
Nebug, which annually hosts a stage of the GP Sochi.
The final 30k are quite tough and could be selective especially if the pace has been high. The climbs aren't anything to really write home about but they are tricky.
Agoyskiy Pereval doesn't seem too much on paper (4km @ 4,5%) but includes a kilometre at just over 8% and its stats are affected by a false flat final kilometre; 3km @ just under 6% is more apt. Cresting with 16km to go, the riders then have a fast descent that becomes more technical towards the bottom before crossing the finishing line around 10km from the line. There's just another small dig of a climb - this being up at almost 8% though, so far from easy - which crests 7km out - inside the town limits of Tuapse, the northern centre of the Sochi resort area where we will be bringing the race to a finish, in line with the "St. Petersburg - Moscow - Sochi" idea for the race mooted in 2012-13. The final weekend beckons us, but with a flat sprint, a couple of potential banana skin rouleur days, the Classics toughman constant up-and-down of Krylatskoye Ring, some ITT mileage and now this winds-and-hills stage, the GC could be interesting here.
Krasnodar:
Tuapse:
Descent finish it is.
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