We followed up the death ride with the Rollercoaster. I have to admit, aside from the headwinds and the rather cold weather and a general lack of convenience stores, this ride is gorgeous. The ride goes through some really pretty canyons where you ride along streams up through Majestic Rock state park, and has some incredible views. While the ride has a respectable amount of climbing, it didn’t feel like it was beating you on the head all day. All in all, great route. Believe it or not, there was even a flat stretch for a little while!

Here is the ride map.

Road map of the Texas Hill Country near Fredericksburg showing a highlighted yellow cycling route through Crabapple, Eckert, Willow City, and surrounding mountains and creeks.

Like I said above, this ride didn’t seem to have that much climbing, but looking at the numbers it did. There were only a couple of real steep climbs. Maybe it’s just that I’ve seen enough of them now that they don’t scare me as much. 😊

Line chart of elevation and total climbing over time on 3/16/2001, showing a rollercoaster profile between roughly 1100 and 2100 feet across 102 miles.

Nothing too exciting on speed on this route, but I did all 102 miles of it at an average speed of 15 mph, not bad considering how tired these legs are.

Speed profile chart for a 102-mile cycling ride on 3/16/2001 from 7:12am to 6:00pm showing speed fluctuating mostly between 10 and 25 mph with periodic drops to zero indicating stops.

I’m debating tomorrow, I may ride the short loop, or I may take the day off. I’m happy with my milage and I would like to see a little bit of Fredericksburg before I leave. Also, I hear there is a good massage shop in town and a 2-hour rub down sounds like near heaven at this point. I’ll decide in the morning.

Part of the Texas Hellweek 2001 collection.