Stage 8: Bolshoy Ice Dome (Большой Ледовый дворец) - Sochi (Сочи), 176km
Climbs:
Храм Князя Владимира (Church of St. Vladimir)(cat.3) 1,4km @ 5,5%
Барановка (Baranovka)(cat.2) 3,2km @ 8,0%
Лесная Улица (Lesnaya Ulica)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 6,8%
Дагомысская Улица (Dagomysskaya Ulica)(cat.3) 0,9km @ 9,0%
Храм Князя Владимира (Church of St. Vladimir)(cat.3) 1,4km @ 5,5%
Барановка (Baranovka)(cat.2) 3,2km @ 8,0%
Лесная Улица (Lesnaya Ulica)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 6,8%
Дагомысская Улица (Dagomysskaya Ulica)(cat.3) 0,9km @ 9,0%
Храм Князя Владимира (Church of St. Vladimir)(cat.3) 1,4km @ 5,5%
Барановка (Baranovka)(cat.2) 3,2km @ 8,0%
Лесная Улица (Lesnaya Ulica)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 6,8%
Дагомысская Улица (Dagomysskaya Ulica)(cat.3) 0,9km @ 9,0%
Храм Князя Владимира (Church of St. Vladimir)(cat.3) 1,4km @ 5,5%
Барановка (Baranovka)(cat.2) 3,2km @ 8,0%
Лесная Улица (Lesnaya Ulica)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 6,8%
Дагомысская Улица (Dagomysskaya Ulica)(cat.3) 0,9km @ 9,0%
Храм Князя Владимира (Church of St. Vladimir)(cat.3) 1,4km @ 5,5%
Барановка (Baranovka)(cat.2) 3,2km @ 8,0%
Лесная Улица (Lesnaya Ulica)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 6,8%
Дагомысская Улица (Dagomysskaya Ulica)(cat.3) 0,9km @ 9,0%
Intermediate sprints:
Сочи (Sochi), 52km
Сочи (Sochi), 102km
Сочи (Sochi), 152km
The final stage of my initial Tour of Russia, following the exact lines of the idea put forward for the race a couple of years ago, going from north to south and taking in the country's two biggest cities as well as the Sochi area, is arguably the toughest. This race has been an attempt to show that a Tour of Russia oil-money race being given World Tour status ? la Beijing wouldn't have to be a bad race; I think I've done a reasonable job. There are reasons for nearly everybody to feel like they have something to go for. There are stages for the sprinters early on, there is a decent-size but not too difficult MTF, there's a mid-length ITT, just long enough for the specialists, and there are a couple of hilly stages. The one thing missing was a true puncheur's day, and that's what this is an attempt to rectify. Also, if the MTF came after this, the race might get neutralized; now, this is the last chance for anybody to do anything, so the racing will need to get tough.
The stage begins at the 2014 Olympic park, close to Adlersky and the airport. The venue has been put together at a mind-scorching cost, equivalent to all previous Winter Olympics put together. They have sought to get further use out of it by setting up the brand new KHL team HC Sochi, and by setting up a Formula One racing circuit around the coastal cluster with limited success (what's wrong with Moscow Raceway?). The riders will basically do a Tour of Dubai-style pointless loop around the Olympic cluster for tourism purposes before heading along the coastal road to Sochi, where they will pass a couple of the city's formerly most iconic sites such as the imposing neo-classical
theatre before entering five laps of a 25km circuit with four categorized climbs on it, three short, one more sustained.
The first climb is to the impressive
New Orthodox Church atop the Novaya Sochi hill. Compared to some of the other religious buildings we've seen in this race it's nothing, but it marks a nice summit before a bit of false flat leading into the toughest climb of the day, which the riders got a preview of yesterday, a sharp ascent into the suburb of Baranovka, which is a proper Li?ge-type climb, just over 3km in length and averaging 8%, but not especially consistent, and occasionally reaching up to 18%. There are some
nasty steep ramps here, and the descent, which largely very straight, is quite steep as well. The
view from the summit is quite something though.
After this descent the riders cross to the southeast side of the river and then take on two smaller climbs which will be known to some of you who've followed this thread for years from my
Sochi World Championship Road Race. The first climb is just over a kilometre at a pretty manageable gradient, then the second on Ulica Dagomysskaya, less than a kilometre long and
the least visually arresting of the climbs, but averaging 9% so giving a platform for riders to do something. With five laps of this circuit, the final time up to Baranovka crests with 16km remaining; the final climb of all with just 4,8km to the line. With the circuit expanded to incorporate the rougher climb that would be overkill in a World Championships race, finishing outside the train station is no longer a possibility and so the finish has been moved to the
slightly uphill drag just outside
Komsomol'sky Park. This will also enable us to have a nice setting for the final presentations et al, because today we select the overall winner in the Tour of Russia.
Большой Ледовый дворец:
Сочи: