The event starts/finishes at City Park in Marble Falls, 30 miles west of Austin, the Live Music Capital of the World, home to SXSW, the largest music festival in the world. Texas, the Lone Star State, is ranch country.
The Texas Challenge features the best of the famed Texas Hill Country. There are lots of deer, water crossings and cattle guards. It’s spring time in the Hill Country and the flowers – Blue Bonnets and Indian Paint Brush – will be blooming. Temps are generally 50-80 ˚F. Mornings can be foggy with clearing by afternoon.
The 200- and 400-mile routes are roughly concentric loops, sharing the first 88 miles and the last 64 miles. There are thousands of miles of paved winding ranch roads with little or no traffic. You’ll experience some of the best cycling in the USA. Both the 200 and 400-mile courses are moderately difficult – ideally suited to advanced beginning to intermediate level ultra-racers.
The RAAM Texas Challenge is part of the 6-event Texas Ultra Cup.
200-MILE
The 200-mile route is challenging – 214 miles with 10,389’ of climbing. The course lies entirely within the Hill Country – many small ranches. The Climbing is distributed fairly evenly throughout the route. The 200-mile racers head west through Comfort to Kerrville, where they turn north and pass west of Fredericksburg and east to Willow City.
400-MILE
The 400-mile route is similarly challenging – 389 miles with 18,902’ of climbing. The northern and eastern half of the route is within the Hill Country. The southern and western half of the route is within what is known as Southwest Texas – more remote, larger ranches, with several long steep climbs. The 400-mile race is the first RAAM Qualifier of the domestic ultra-racing season. It is also a great warm-up for racers and crew planning on doing RAAM in June. The 400-mile course continues south to Boerne. At Boerne the riders head west through Bandera, Medina, Vanderpool and Leakey to Camp Wood. This part of the course is semi-arid ranch country and features several steep climbs. From here racers head north and east through Mountain Home, Harper and Cherry Spring on the way to Willow City.
