Hill Country Century Challenge, Marble Falls, TX

September 16, 2006

Texas' weather helped the 2006 Hill Country Century Challenge on 16 Sept, 2006. Riders arrived at the ride start on a cloudy morning with temperatures in the mid 70's with the day's high predicted for the low 90's.
Check-in was uneventful -- alphabetically organized for pre-registrants. The no-mass start approach worked well and avoided a crush along the first 7 miles on a ranch road that shared some sporadic truck traffic.
Trip distances were at 24, 39, 64, 84 & 101 miles. Good course maps and directions were provided. There was good signage along the route ; I came across only one misplaced rider (a century guy) about 5 miles past the 100 mile turnoff.
As a new cyclist, I chose the 39 mile route and found rest stops well placed and well marked on the course maps. Each was stocked by friendly volunteers offering water, gatorade, bananas, cookies, and pbj sandwiches. Signage advised riders of rest stops 1 mile in advance.
Course was hilly with some early stretches of up to a mile or more of flat ground. The second 8 miles were strewn with about half a dozen cattle crossings. Each had a well marked approach spray painted on the pavement and was marked by signage. Pavement smoothness varied on the hilly backroads with some of the most isolated areas having the smoothest stretches of pavement. I didn't see alot of gravel on the route other than one turn around the 13 mile mark and that was isolated to a short stretch of road.
Winds were calm until about 9:30am. They seemed to be in the riders face for the last 9-10 miles of the ride on a hilly stretch of road. I appreciated the final mile being downhill.
I didn't avail myself of the post ride dinner but knowing Burnet County, Texas, I've no doubt that barbeque with fixings would meet the needs of many a discriminating rider.
I'll be back next year, and looking forward to one of the longer routes.

September 18, 2004

This was a good event, considering it's only the second year of the ride. The staging area and registration were easy to find and the volunteers were among the very friendliest of any tour I've done. Unfortunately, the staging area was pretty much all pea gravel, the first quarter mile of the route was under construction, and the road was congested with construction vehicles and vehicular traffic. The start went smoothly until the first big downhill where a novice rider lost her water bottle trying to avoid a large rock in the middle of the narrow right hand lane. The route out of town was tight and a bit bumpy with the usual type of challenging hills and scenery you would expect on the fringe of the hill country. The course wasn't as hilly as expected; it seemed to us that the Cowtown Classic and the Aledo Ride were much hillier. One of the most remarkable things about this ride was the absence of almost any vehicular traffic, with the exception of the SAG vehicles. The SAG fleet seemed everywhere, they were non-obtrusive, and well marked with exceptionally courteous drivers and helpers; I saw more SAG vehicles on this ride than on any two other rides combined. Way to go! We made a couple of rest stops and enjoyed the Gatorade, oranges, cookies, peanut butter & jelly sammiches; and let me give a big thank you to the rest stop volunteers, they were friendly, personable, funny, and downright "downhome". All rides should have volunteers like this one, they made the difference between a good ride and a fun ride. The 100k route was bumpier than average but was almost absent of gravel at the intersections and was one of the best groomed routes I've seen, and the course had virtually no trash anywhere. The signage needs to be improved significantly - most riders were confused as to which route they were on and I don't believe a color blind rider could do this route without becoming very frustrated. I would suggest the ride organizers contact the Mesquite Rodeo organizers and learn from them on how to mark the route and do the signage. The last five miles had a couple of challenging hills and one wall, which made for a lot of back slapping at the finish line. Kudo's to the finish line volunteers! This ride may well have the best food at the finish line tent; lots of tasty brisket, sausage, potato salad, beans, and all the trimmings. My sincere thanks to the cooks and again, to the volunteers, this ride had the best volunteers of any ride we've done and we sincerely appreciate everything they did to make this ride fun and challenging.

The Road Ride for Mountain Bikers
No, I'm not talking about the Tour de Gravel.  This past weekend, I decided to head down to Marble Falls to do the Hill Country Challenge Rally, which benefited scholarships for disadvantaged students in the area.  If you missed this one, feel free to strap on your Sidis and kick yourself repeatedly.  This was one of the best single day rides I've had in the last year.  If you like to ride hills on challenging roads with beautiful scenery, this was your event.
The routes left Marble Falls and meandered out and back following routes of 15 to 125 miles heading northeast and back around through the Hill Country.  Road conditions varied from good (at best) to very poor.  I did hear some complaining about that.  To be truthful, there were plenty of rough roads, patched pavement, cattle guard crossings, and even a 10-mile stretch of gravel road to your grab your attention.  There were a few short sections running through residential areas of Burnet (almost oddly quiet), and a few stretches along slightly busier county roads.  However, most of the route followed very quiet, very isolated back roads.  I think the tradeoff of low traffic for rougher surface was worthwhile.  Most of the dangers were well marked: split cattle guards were sprayed, and the few water crossings were marked ahead.  Unlike most of our local rides, which are "flat with a few hills", this was "hilly with a few flat spots."  There were plenty of opportunities to work the small ring and the big cog.  Winds were mostly southerly, so we had a little tailwind heading out and some mild intermittent head/cross winds on the way back.
The rest stops were reasonably well stocked for the most part, although one of the stops had run out of Gatorade when we arrived.  Stations were spaced out about 30 miles on the back end of the 124-mile route - a little sparse compared with most of the rides around here, but I guess when you sign up for a 124-mile ride they expect you to come prepared.  I didn't mind, but it was definitely a 3-bottle ride.  The locals Kiwanis club, HAM radio operators, and a variety of service organizations volunteered to help out; volunteers were plentiful and SAG support was surprisingly visible, even on the long route.  There were bagels before the ride and it finished with a barbeque dinner including brisket, sausage, and all the trimmings - nice!
The scenery was unbelievable.  Plenty of beautiful fields, with an assortment of horses, cows, and goats to cheer you on as you struggled by.  "Loose livestock" signs apparently did not refer to the low moral standards of the local livestock, but rather served to notify you that the occasional large animal would be found on YOUR side of the fence.  Careful flying around those curves:  you on a bike versus a horse -- you lose.  Also on hand were some carrion birds feasting on the occasional armadillo carcass, but undoubtedly happy to oblige should any flatlander cyclist fail to meet the challenge of the hills.  There were some shaded sections of road, but plenty of open hilltops to get that vitamin D production going.  Views from the hilltops were spectacular.
I had a great time.  It took me 8 hours to finish the double metric route with several brief stops.  I was cramping a bit on the last few steep climbs, and was one of the last to struggle in. 124 miles is a long ride regardless of the terrain, and the difficulty was compounded by the hills and the road conditions.  There was more rough pavement than smooth pavement, and by a generous margin, too.  But honestly, I wouldn't ask the ride director to change one foot of this route.  Maybe bouncing around the rock gardens of the local state parks on a MTB for 6 years before picking up road cycling has numbed me to the torture of chip seal and patched potholes, but I think the road conditions and even the stretch of gravel really added to the atmosphere of the ride.  This was real Hill Country riding.  It was a tough ride, and it was supposed to be a tough ride.  If you were looking for a flat route with glassy roads to run in a double pace line while chatting about the week's social events, you didn't miss much here.  But if your idea of a great ride is 8 hours alone, grinding it out up steep hills, weaving through patched pavement, flying over cattle guards, and plowing through gravel roads - if you are roadie with a mountain biker's soul - then this was your day.