On the second stage of the Tian-Shan Stone City Cup the riders will encounter their first mountain test. What loomed as a punishing potential far in the distance at the end of the plain on the horizon will turn painful reality.
In fact, on this second stage the race changes character. Those that missed out on the first stage and prefer hedging their bets instead of putting all their money on a win on a hellish and un...
Read moreOn the second stage of the Tian-Shan Stone City Cup the riders will encounter their first mountain test. What loomed as a punishing potential far in the distance at the end of the plain on the horizon will turn painful reality.
In fact, on this second stage the race changes character. Those that missed out on the first stage and prefer hedging their bets instead of putting all their money on a win on a hellish and unpredictable last stage will try to make the race as difficult as possible on the hills and slopes and valleys around the small town of Krasnogorsk.
There are a number of different things we could imagine playing out on those often punishingly steep kick-ups - all scenarios however, will deal a hefty blow to the hopes of many a rider. These lovely green valleys and puppy filled hills worthy of having inspired an impressionist painter will see many a rider falter and high-held dreams crumble. At this point and for the rest of the race, we will have left the broad Soviet boulevards of Tashkent far behind. We are back in the rural agricultural hinterlands - picturesque but with narrow and highly technical countryside roads.
On the climbs around Krasnogorsk these technical requirements to the skill-sets of the aspiring candidates for the win might not demand to much of the prospective rider, but when the race tops out at close to 1000m altitude just before reaching the town of Parkent with about 55km to go the ensuing 25km steep decent is equally narrow and technical; here the utter vigilance will be required of the riders in the leading group as a race can very well be lost here.
The final 20km will include some small rises which should, however, hardly be felt by the riders, as the general profile is still rather flat even leaning downhill. As some smaller and narrower roads (or foot-paths in almost street-size for that matter) could have been found in Tashkent's old town as well, the run-in was designed to still demand some technique of the riders on the way past some of the Uzbek capital's best known sights.
The freshest rider that managed to get over the steep slopes and down the technical downhills will be to be both fresh in mind to navigate the technical run-in and start the sprint towards the line in the right moment; and fresh in legs, as after this punishing stage every grain of energy will count.
