Distance: officially, 110-112 miles but you can easily shorten (which makes it easier than it should be to bail)
Elevation gain: 11000-12000' (with this many hills, no two Garmins will agree)
Roads: mostly smooth pavement, wide shoulder on Bee Cave, other roads have small or no shoulder but low traffic. Beauford is scored pavement to keep cars from losing traction (reassuring, no?).
Driver tolerance: Generally good but you're bound to encounter a few impatient drivers with this many hills. I find 360 to be the most harrowing, despite the wide shoulder. I had a pretty close call with someone trying to take an exit ramp while I was going straight.
The bad: Beauford, Jester (at about mile 100!), Big View, Courtyard/City Park. Shall I go on? Seriously though, if you're fit, this will be challenging but fun. If you're not, it'll be a rough day (or morning, more likely). I had done a century about three weeks before so I knew I could handle the distance. By not burning up any single climb, I was able to make it through (see below).
The good: At least there's oxygen, right? Riding with 300-400 other crazy cyclists. The first loop is one of Austin's finest road rides with nice scenery, some tree-sheltered roads and low-traffic roads.
"Do you have it? Are you strong enough?"
"I know I can do loop one. Heck, I 'gave' myself that for my birthday last year. I've done nearly all the big/infamous climbs of loop two...Putting them together and adding more miles and a couple thousand more feet of climbing? Hmm..."
Those were the voices in my head as the date of Tour Das Hugel approached.
Not completely believing in my abilities, I unpacked the bike underneath the MoPac bridge and contemplated how many layers to put on in the 50-degree overcast day forecast. Before I was really quite ready, the pack of--what 300 cyclists?--sounded their battle cry and sped off.
Das Hugel is laid out in two loops. Loop one is a bit shy of 40 miles and has probably 4000' of climbing. The only thing super steep is The High Road but it's pretty short. River Hills is a gorgeous road and the climb is longer but nothing too intimidating. Same with Barton Creek and Lost Creek. The latter is one of my favorite roads in Austin.
My inclination is to really push on climbs but I got in a group and a groove going up Terrace Mountain and realized that if I just spun as much as I could on these climbs, I'd be able to last a lot longer, maybe even the whole ride.
Loop two is over 70 miles and connects one nauseating climb in northwest Austin after another: Mt. Bonnell (177'), Smokey Valley/Ladera Norte (352', 25% in a couple places!!), Bluegrass (162'), Rain Creek (195'), Beauford (276', scored pavement, reaching 30% in one spot, supposedly), Courtyard (312')-City Park (153'), River Place (~400'), Bullick Hollow (200' but I missed this one) , 620 Dam to 2222 (415'), Big View (385') and Jester (341'). Oh, and then you have to get home going the big hills on 360 (540', albeit there's a downhill section in there).
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| Cresting Courtyard. Nice view. Hard to appreciate it. Photo by http://cycling.frenzied.us/ |
I paperboyed Smokey Valley going from one curb to the other. Can I go straight up? Yes, but again, I was trying not to burn myself out, especially that early in loop two.
Which climb was worst? I think it might have been Big View for me. At about mile 90, you go down this badboy just to turn around and come right back up. This, knowing that Jester is still ahead of you and I hate Jester. Courtyard was pretty ugly too. On paper, 620 is the biggest climb but it's stretched out so you can just spin. Which I did, of course.
Take one in isolation and you might think, "What's the big deal? 5, maybe 10 minutes of pain and pushing and you're cresting the top. Arranged in sequence like this, one hit after another, and the total will test you at least, knock you out at worst. But, hey, at least you have all the oxygen you need, unlike Colorado climbs.
Do you have it? Are you strong enough? Give it a try sometime and get back to me!
