Blazin' Saddle 75 - Grandbury, TX

August 13, 2011

Rode the Blazin' Saddles 75 in Granbury. The wet weather seemed to keep attendance down. There was also the Hot Rocks ride in Rockwall. So glad I chose Granbury. Great rodes with some chipseal. Scenery was awesome. The volunteers were great despite the wet weather. Rest stops well spaced with plenty of goodies. Registration was quick. Great signage, though I did miss one sign and ended up in Tolar and then on 377 back to Granbury, but I'm sure that was my fault for not paying attention. The signage was good as far as I could tell. Plenty of hills to make the route challenging. This is the first time I have done this ride. I will be back next year and look forward to riding it in better weather.

Blazin Saddles 2011 was a wet, but pretty darn good ride. Rain, rain, and more rain, but at least it was different from the usual 100 degrees and sunburn. Well run, great people, well stocked rest stops, nice roads for the most part, and plenty of markings. Lots of signs/arrows/writing on roads/etc., for turns, potholes, steep hills, RR crossings, routes merging, etc. These people really know what they're doing, and I will do this one again. (Only one very small complaint: Water at one of the rest stops tasted terrible. Was that stored in a trash can?)

This was a great, bucket list, kind of ride. It got off to a rough start because of the rain but turned out very well. All rest stops stayed open without a sign of closing until the last rider came thur. It had some hills to tame but the beauty of them would take your breath first. I rate this ride A+.

All I can say is that the 75 mile was the most beautiful, challenging course I have done this year, and the rain was GREAT, I could not believe how many riders showed up despite the rain, very well organized, a little confusing toward the end, with the course coming back on itself, some of the arrows were wearing off because of the rain, but I never got lost, plenty of corner workers, GREAT RIDE, I'll be back next year.

Wonderful ride in the Granbury area! 2nd time to do this event and choose the 40 mile course this year. I give this ride a 2 thumbs up! The rainy weather this year kept some folks away but what an awesome experience riding in the rain after 40+ days of scorching 100 + degree days. Cool, wet, the trees were singing with delight as I zipped along the well marked course, quite happy to have a brief respite from the blazing heat.
A prudent 30 minute precautionary delayed start by the very thorough Cadence race directors allowed the lightning to clear the area and once underway the scenic course provided an awesome riding experience. Great rest stops staffed by enthusiastic volunteers offering a multitude of race snacks and fluids, very light traffic on my route, and terrific sag coverage throughout this gently rolling course made this event to be one of my most pleasant and memorable rides. Oh, and the huge pot of warm beans with cornbread is such the terrific finishing touch!
I highly recommend this event for all riders. This is a professionally produced, high-quality event that goes the extra mile to ensure safety and an overall good time for all participants. As advertised, it is the perfect warm-up for the Hotter-than-Hell (Texas). Thank you guys and way to go Cadence!

I rode the Blazing Saddle 75 last weekend, and what a ride it was. The ride was well organized, and well supported. The Blazing Saddle directors, and staff really worked hard to pull this off in spite of the bad weather that enveloped the area. For most of us, we thought, it just doesn't get better than this! One of the riders told me, "…it was the best ride all year". Again, the roads were well marked. Some turns had redundant marking. How cool is that? There were also markings that verified you were on the right track. I believe there was one intersection where the weather had blown some of the markers off of the stop sign; however, looking down at the asphalt were the painted (stenciled) arrows showing the way. Rest stops were extremely friendly, and rest stop no. 8, I won't forget you!! Thanks so much for the lei. All in all, the directors, and staff deserve a huge THANK YOU from all us hard core riders that just never get enough. Well done!!! Look forward to seeing you again next year. BTW, this is great training for HH100.

August 14, 2010

We would like to thank all of the cyclists for coming out to the second annual Blazin Saddle 75 in Granbury. Being avid cyclists ourselves we understand and appreciate that our athletes have choices when it comes to which events they choose to participate in. It is our goal to always strive to produce a safe, challenging, fun event. We value all of the feedback we get and will be making the appropriate changes next year to make the event even better. I have heard rumblings that the 75 mile route was one of if not the most difficult ride in the metroplex. I quite sure that most cyclists like the challenge of a difficult ride, so expect the courses to remain the same in 2011. We will be making some slight modifications for safety, but don't plan to change the routes. Again, we thank you, our beneficiary Texas EMS thanks you and we look forward to seeing you and your friends in Granbury next year!

Did the 75 miler. The ride was hilly and hot as advertised. Lots of hills. The ride started at 8:00 AM, which is good if you don't want to wake up early, but when the forecast is for the 100's, I would prefer to lose the sleep so I could finish a little earlier and get out of the heat. The rest stops were in general about every 10 miles with one exception - by my computer it was 15 or 16 miles after the 30 mile rest stop to the next one (it was a loop so it was actually the same rest stop). It would be good if they had a more detailed map that indicated where the rest stops are going to be so you can plan accordingly. Volunteers at the rest stops were very helpful and friendly. Kudos to the volunteers. There were a few sections on bigger highways (that were chip seal - arghh) but in general the ride was mostly back roads (with very little traffic) that were extremely scenic and the ride was well marked.

I did the 75 mile route. It is one of the most (if not the most) challenging routes of any ride in the area. My Garmin said over 3200 feet of climbing, which is more than the Goatneck. The same hills that made it challenging made it the most scenic ride around also. I was worried that with this being only the second time this ride was put on, combined with the extreme heat and later start time, that we could be in trouble out there. Not the case. The rest stops were well spaced (I actually rode past the last one), with more at the end of the route. They all had ice and really friendly helpful people. There was more chip seal than I would like, but it was obvious that the route planners did all they could to minimize it. Traffic control was great, especially in and out of Granbury. Suggestions for improvement? Personally, I think any ride of that distance that starts this time of year should start at 7. But I understand that might keep people away, so I respect the decision to move it to 8. Also, don't hand out plastic bottles of water. Too many cyclists think they're in the TdF and toss them aside once they are done. Plus, by the time they are handed out, they are hot. All in all a great ride and a great part of Texas to be riding in. I will be back next year. Thanks to all the volunteers.

I rode the 75 mile course and with the humbling climb up Comanche Peak at mile 69, it is tough. This ride is very challenging, maybe even more than Goatneck. The weather was as expected for August. Great training for the HHH-100. Anyone who rode it, is definitely ready for HHH. Great support and markings. Maybe adding a course between 40 & 75 would be good because of the heat and all those hills. Could not have ask for a better cause than to support the local EMS. They are truly everyday heroes. Great job for just the 2nd year. I hope it continues to grow. Thanks for everything!

Rode the 75 miler. This is a great ride with great volunteers, well spaced rest stops, very good traffic support. The route was very hilly, scenic with very light traffic. For this being only the second year this ride is well on its way to becoming one of the top rides in this area. The organizers have obviously done their homework and it showed. Did I mention the route? Awesome. Great Job by the organizers, volunteers and sponsors, can't wait till next year. Just need more participants!

I rode the 75 (actually only rode 57 of it) had to sag out, way to hot. First I will say I will be back next year I have never let a race beat me until this weekend I would just ask for two things start early if there is light we should be on the rode. Second add an aid station in the desolate loop around the 40 mile marker it would have helped a lot. All in all this was a great ride amazing climbs the best aid stations around if you are looking for a HHH training ride this is your ride if you can do this no question you can do HHH. I hope to see twice as many riders next year.

VERY CHALLENGING RIDE!! The hills just keep coming! I agree that it would be great to start at 7:00 on this one. Overall a very good ride with a couple of very correctable problems. First as another reviewer noted, the 75 mile route had a very long gap between rest stops. What made this worse was, this was the most challenging part of the course (the lower loop), plus the rest stop right before that was out of ice. Second, and this bothered me all day: The lack of signs. The small colored arrows were easy to see once you were right on top of them, but from a distance there was no way to see the turns coming. I rode past three arrows, but noticed them just as I was on top of them. I was able to turn around and go back to the turn each time, but I found myself slowing slightly at almost every intersection to look for an arrow. The road paint plus visible sign seems the way to go. (That way you can prepare for the turn well in advance, when you see the sign, and re-confirm the turn with the arrow once you arrive at the intersection.) This was a tough one, but quite well run. Registration was a bit hard to find, as it was behind a school with no signs, but the people were TERRIFIC! Rest stops were great, and for the most part very well stocked. Thanks so much to the people who put this one on. I’ll be back next year!

What a fantastic improvement from last year. If you're familiar with the (now defunct) Cruisin' the Hood ride, you will be pleased by this new route. Hwy 51 has some recent chip-n-seal this year. Fortunately, we only had to ride about three miles of it on the 40-mile route. The rest of the ride is beautiful. Lots of decent country roads with very little traffic. My Garmin indicated 1385 feet of climbing. Whew! The police support was fantastic. The volunteers were cheery and helpful. The "fast guys" think they're on the freakin' Tour de France or something. Tossing bottles and trash, littering the beautiful country side like they're God's gift to cycling with no respect for the surroundings. Ugh. But all that aside, I really enjoyed this ride. Maybe if it was moved to a cooler time of the year, it would attract more riders. Congrats Blazin' Saddle for best improved ride of the year.

No signs at or near the registration area, but wasn't hard to find. Registration was fast and friendly. Police on 377 were nice, but no other intersections had police/staff controlling them, even the turns at the rest stops. Only a few signs for the route, painted arrows were used, which are easy to miss and were only marked once at the actual turn. I missed a painted arrow early in the ride and had to turn around, making me hesitant the rest of the ride. Most of the route was on lightly travelled back roads, nice hills, good scenery, but the chip seal sections were very rough (lots of chip, not much seal). People complained about the 7am start last year, but this ride needs to start at 7am. All intersections really need to have someone there to help riders with traffic and course navigation. It would be a good ride with that and signs for routes, not painted arrows.

I rode the full 75 miles (I think it was actually 77+). This was great but challenging ride. Lots of climbing. I found it much tougher than the Goatneck ride a couple of weeks earlier. Scenery was similar to Goatneck but even better. The heat (predicted to 105 that day) was incredible. I think the heat was really putting the hurt on me the last 7-10 miles. The roads were primarily chip seal. Most were well packed chip seal and actually quite nice. A few stretches had some rough chip seal (mainly hwy 51) but those stretches were kept to a minimum. I think they have a great route and need to keep it the same. The only thing I would do different (from a route standpoint) is to add a 60 mile ride. This would be easily accomplished by not taking the 75 mile route detour (the single 15-16 mile loop to the south in Somerville County). All the rest stations would be there & volunteers to support a 60 mile route. The ride was well organized w/ good traffic control in and out of Granbury and at some intersections on hwy 51. Most intersections are not manned, just an arrow painted on the road. Hopefully this ride will grow and with the growth more volunteers for the intersections similar to Goatneck. They did have some warning signs out indicating cattle gaurds, dips, warning motorist, etc.. They had plenty of rest stations with great volunteers. Rest stations were every 10 miles except one place on the 75 mile ride were you did the 15-16 mile loop (the one I described above). I found this loop to be the toughest part of the ride and a rest stop on the backside of that loop would have been nice even if it was one guy with a tailgate & an ice chest. I think most riders skipped the rest station going into this loop and did not realize that by skipping it they would wind up going 25+ miles in some tough climbing between rest stops. Next time I will stop at the rest station before heading into the 16 mile loop. One other thing that would be nice at the rest stops (Goatneck could use some help with this to) are laminated maps showing you where you are. Also educating the volunteers how far they are from the finish and the next rest stop. It was hot and a lot of people were suffering from the climbing and heat. There was always a few people trying to decide if they wanted to SAG it home or try to make it to the next stop. This type info would have helped them. Speaking of SAG there was plenty of it. That’s about it. It was a great ride and I will be back next year.

August 1, 2009

We listened to the rider reviews on your site and have made the necessary changes.
Thanks, Cadence Race Productions

This review is for the inaugural (I think?) Blazin’ Saddle 75, out of Granbury. The spring ride was cancelled this year, so I guess this usually rideless weekend (except for the San Angelo ride on Sunday) was exploited to get a ride done this year.
Comments pertain to the 40 mile route.
The route of this ride is totally different from the “Crusin’ the Hood” ride which is usually held in the spring, in that it is north of US 377, not south of it. The route was the first problem with this ride, even before the start. The map of the 40 mile route published on the website as a PDF file, was not accurate. The map had the route going east of Star Hollow lake, when in fact there is no such road. This became clear to me as I was preparing a GPS route for the ride. I contacted the ride organizer by e-mail, and he explained the correct route to me, which in fact goes through Lipan.
The map that was handed out before the ride was the same incorrect map, for the 40 mile ride. Now, the route ended up being not 37 as stated on the website, or 40, but actually 45.29, which is a big difference. Accurate information about the route needs to be provided.
The second problem was a complete dichotomy between the ride organizers and the Granbury police. Before the ride, the ride organizer told us to stay on US 377, as the shoulder was very rough chip seal. So we all started the ride, only to be told by a cop who came up behind us, using his loudspeaker, to move over to the shoulder as the road was still open. There should have been an understanding reached between the ride and the police. It seemed that this one particular officer was not to thrilled about the bike ride.
The route for the most part was very good , rural with little traffic. FM 4 was a busy road, but had a broad and relatively smooth shoulder to ride on, at least until you got to Thorp Spring, when the shoulder disappeared and several cars passed too close and fast, at which point I took the lane. The route had some challenging hills characteristic of this part of the state.
The rest stops were good, with cookies, pretzels, pickles and Gatorade. There was bottled water; I would suggest that this be kept on ice next time and not served tepid. The last rest stop run by Home Depot was particularly wells stocked. There were delicious home made cookies as well as store bought ones, bags and trays of potato chips, and enough pickle juice to float the Titanic. These folks really took their rest stop seriously.
The last comment about the ride is the early start time. 7:00 am was chosen, I am sure, to get the ride done before the heat got to bad, ironically, it was probably one of the coolest days of the summer (at least in the morning) with a section of cool wind and rain on the west most portion of the route. Perhaps we crossed a front line; as we proceeded east the weather got warm and humid again. I myself have no problem getting up at 4:00 am to make this ride, but the ride probably would have had twice as many riders had it started at 8:00.
If the ride organizers fix some of the problems mentioned (especially the inaccurate map) I look forward to riding this again next year, if it is held.

I really wanted to do something in about the 75 mile range and the Blazin' Saddles in Granbury looked pretty good, until I looked at the map. There's no way I'm doing this one. On the 75 mile, (actually 79 mile) route, more than half of the ride is on two major cross state highways, 377 and 281, basically just straight from Granbury to Stephenville on 377, (with a little detour) around Tolar, and then north on 281 for 22 more miles, finally turning off on Hwy 4 back to Granbury, just a big triangle with no apparent effort put in to keep the riders off of the big roads, or to give them much variety. The mid range ride isn't much better, just shorter, but much of it on Hwy 377. What were they thinking? This could actually be quite, dare I say, VERY dangerous. I think I'll give this one a pass.

Outstanding ride! I did the 75 (actually 78.5) which was very challenging, but nice. Roads were a bit busy, but the shoulders were nice and wide, and MOSTLY SMOOTH! One rest stop didn't have any ice, and I agree with the other review about the organizers/police at the beginning. A bit of conflicting directions there.... Good points: Rest stops were very well spaced and fantastically manned. VERY nice people. I too have mixed emotions about the 7:00 start. Very good as far as maximizing the cooler temps, but sure, you do have to get up at the crack of midnight to get there on time... Two thumbs out, however for this ride. The people who thought they'd wait till the organizers got the bugs out (first year ride) need not have worried. Well run. Well staffed. Good ride. I'll do it again next year for sure. Let's get some more people out there!

Sorry, I can't say much positive about this ride. The starting time was too early, Got lost trying to find my way to the event, google gave wrong location but there wasn't any signage directions either. The 37 mi ride turned into 45 mi.and the last 19mi from Lipan was worst shoulder I have had to ride on this year, very dangerous! sometimes their wasn't a shoulder, it was full of gravel, obstacles. Nearly got clipped once. Seemed most of the drivers had no regard for cyclists. I did like the challenge of the climb of first 15 miles, rest stops were sufficient. I love Granbury but big changes will have to be made for me to even consider the event for a second time.

40-mile route: I would highly recommend this ride. Most of the route was rural, with no traffic, and beautiful scenery. Please keep the 7:00 a.m. start time! A. Mills

The 75-mile (actually 78+) route is my new favorite of the dozens of charity rides I’ve participated in. It is well-laid-out and scenic, and has the smoothest roads of any Texas ride I’ve done. Its 49-ft/mile average ascent is typical of NTX – not real hard, not real easy. It has no iconic climbs, but has enough gradient to be interesting. We got lucky with the weather: mild temperatures, light wind, and no rain. I stopped twice – Stephenville and Morgan Mill – and the rest stops were well-stocked and manned by helpful and friendly volunteers. The start-finish isn’t the best locale – a few miles of chipseal to and from – but to me this is a small price to pay for the excellent roads featured on the rest of the ride. Despite being held on some prominent highways, traffic was a non-factor.
My only disappointment was that so few riders showed up. I’m not surprised – new ride, early start time. I hope the organizers feel this one’s worth holding again. In my opinion it’s far superior to Cruisin’ De Hood, and I thought that was one of the better NTX rides. I’ll be back for sure.

This was a good inaugural event and I look forward to riding it again next year. The 7:00am start is early, but I appreciate the organizers conern about the heat and encourage them to keep this as a start time. The 75 mile route was closer to 79. The hills, distance, increasing wind and heat made this a good tune up for HHH. The ride on 377 from Grandbury to Stephenville wasn't that bad - there was plenty of shoulder and the road was mostly smooth. Aid stations were stocked with the usuals and the volunteers were very friendly. I never saw any SAG support on the road and this needs to be addressed before next year's ride. Thanks to the Granbury YMCA for opening their facilities to the riders - that shower felt great.

I did not like the 7:00 start time. It was about 7:20 before I could drag myself and my bike onto the course. Should have started from home about ½ hour sooner, but I got up at 4:30 as it was. I rode the 75 mile route so I understand the concerns with 281. The shoulders were plenty wide and the pavement was mostly smooth, but I don’t enjoy spending so much time on the highway. The traffic wasn’t buzzing the riders, but it was frequent and it was noisy and it does detract from the enjoyment of the ride. Time spent trying to find some acceptable country lane roads to replace portions of 281 would be time well spent. The worst part of the entire ride was the chip seal, into the wind, slightly uphill last portion. I was really glad when that was over. The rest stops were well stocked and the volunteers were very helpful. The beans served at the end were a great idea, but my mama always put ham hocks in hers!

Great inaugural ride! Billed as a prepatory for the HH 100. Great course, I did the 75, some highway though very limited traffic. Great Sag, support staff, pickle juice, snacks, and BEANS at the finish. Made for a fun ride and a fun drive back to FTW as well. Go Mondo..will for sure see you ya'all next year. Cadence planned this event well as they have done with their previous Granbury events....

Great inaugural ride! The Blazin' Saddle 75 , labeled as a prepatory ride for the HTH 100, was a well run, well staffed, and totally fun ride. I have participated in other Cadence events and they really seem to plan their events out well. Blazin' Saddle course has good roads and even though some, I did the 75, highways were included, to me it was way better than other area rides that consist of way to much chip seal. It seemed like the only traffic on the road were the sag vehicles. Way to go! Pickle juice, snacks on course and BEANS at the finish made for a great ride, and a funny drive home, in a Mondo sort of way...Definitely will be back next year!! See ya'all in Wichita Falls....