Stage 4: Ostrava - Červenohorské Sedlo, 167km
Climbs:
Budišovice (cat.2) 2,1km @ 4,0%
Petrovy Boudy (cat.2) 4,6km @ 5,7%
Heřmanovické Sedlo (cat.1) 6,5km @ 4,5%
Karlova Studánké Sedlo (cat.1) 11,2km @ 4,0%
Videlský Kříž (cat.2) 2,8km @ 5,8%
Červenohorské Sedlo (cat,1) 7,8km @ 6,0%
After a short transfer across the border, stage 4 marks our first stage in the Czech Republic, and it's another medium-mountain styled stage with a brand new finish for the Peace Race. Today's depart, however, is steeped in Peace Race history. Ostrava has been the start of 6 stages of the event. In early events, it marked the transition from Czechoslovakia to Poland, and tended to host the finish of a mountainous stage from Gottwaldow (Zlín) and then the start of a flatter stage to a southern Polish metropole such as Katowice, Kraków or Opole. However, later on in the race's history it came to be involved in more important stages, such as the mountainous 1985 stage to Bielsko-Biała won by Lech Piasecki, or the 1996 stage to Choceň over a number of climbs in the Jeseníky range.
That's not to say that the climbs the riders are undertaking are unknown to the race though; besides that 1996 stage, a number of stages to Olomouc, Opava and Kłodzko have travelled through this area, as well as a 1997 stage finishing on a mountaintop finish on the Praděd climb near to today's finish.
Two consecutive mountaintop finishes early in the race may seem like overkill, but this is really going to be an all-rounder's race, and given the lack of 20km+ monster climbs, the climbers need to make the most of these smaller summits, which should mean earlier animation, or more classics-styled riders will be able to take time back later on.
The stage begins in Ostrava, the third largest city in the Czech Republic, and swiftly heads to the west. There is one climb in the early going, the short hill on
narrow roads and worn tarmac up to Budišovice. The rest of the first 100km of the stage is consistently rolling; no real climbs to speak of, but endless rises and drops that will take their toll by the end of the race. The riders turn northwards toward the old German town of
Krnov (formerly Jägerndorf), home of much textile production and one of the few remaining
synagogues in this part of Europe. The town serves as the end of this part of the stage, and heralds the onset of a flat stretch along the Polish-Czech borderline, before the town of
Jindřichov signals the onset of the climbs.
The first climb, to Petrovy Boudy, is not the steepest climb in the world or the longest, but it does feature some
narrow, difficult roads. The buildings at the summit burnt down in 2011 leaving razed outlines of themselves, so there can be a post-apocalyptic kind of feel to this wilderness as well. After that it's a descent into
Zlaté Hory before a more gradual climb up to the mountain village of
Heřmanovice. After some more rolling terrain, we pass through the town of
Vrbno pod Pradědem with 35km to go, all of which is up or down. The first 11 of these are Karlova Studánké Sedlo, mostly
nice wide roads at consistent uphills, until the last 2-3km which rise up to 7-8%.
After this, its twin.
Videlský Kříž from
this side is not super long or difficult, but with a maximum gradient of 12,3% and coming hot off the heels of a longer climb, it could well see some action bearing in mind the summit is just 18km from the finish. After that, 10km descending into Bělá pod Pradědem takes us to the base of our final climb. Červenohorské Sedlo is a similar length to Równica from yesterday's stage, but slightly steeper;
here is the profile (we're cutting off the first kilometre or so). Although the climb is steeper in general than Równica yesterday, that was a less consistent climb and therefore would allow a greater possibility of attacks getting away early; on the other hand this stage offers the possibility of getting away from the last couple of kilometres of the third climb out and staying away if riders dare make a move. Again, the climb ramps up a bit near the summit, quite typical of Carpathian climbs, so even if the stage sees a group of elites, there is time to be made in the last couple of kilometres; on Równica in 2010 guys like Grega Bole and Alessandro Ballan were able to stay within 20 seconds of the winner. Given the stages to come, the climbers will surely want to prevent that.
I was tempted to descend the other side of this, and then do
this climb up to
Dlouhé Stráně, however problems with this are twofold: one, there's very little at the summit and so it would be difficult logistically, and two, I don't want to unbalance the parcours too much. I have a chaque that I've got a route here that gives a wide range of riders a chance to win, and don't want to overbalance it.
Ostrava:
Červenohorské Sedlo:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram