ripa

My wife and I may be staying near Round Top Texas for the weekend. Any good places to ride around there? If so please share. Also any group rides would be great as well.

bluebottle1

I frequently train up there in the early spring. It's a nice area. Usually, Round Top is at the northern end of the ride I do, starting out in New Ulm and heading up through Industry before reaching Round Top and heading back south again.

ripa

Not being familiar with the area what roads would be the best and safest to ride on?

bluebottle1

The roads in the area aren't too heavily trafficked as long as you aren't going on a weekend when there is some special event in Round Top. You might want to try heading out TX 237, which will take you southwest, and then hang left onto 1291, which will take you on down to Fayetteville--probably one of the most bicycle-friendly small towns in the state, certainly in the region. Then continue east on 1291 through to Frelsburg and New Ulm. It hooks up with 109, which is a bit heavier on traffic, but has a good shoulder. Take that up to Industry before heading west again on 1457, which takes you through Shelby and back to Round Top. That's probably about a 45 mile route, all on decent roads without too much traffic. There are convenience stores in Fayetteville, Frelsburg, New Ulm and Industry. Frelsburg's may not be open on Sunday. I don't recall about Shelby.

ripa

Thank you so much!!!!!

froggmann

This is a basic map of the 29 and 45 mile routes. Be prepared for some rolling hills and a couple of fairly big climbs. Great ride though.



https://hillhopper.org/pdf/hillhopper-29-45.pdf

Ironic Mullet

froggmann beat me to it. Eat at Royer's before you leave.

bluebottle1

And make sure you get pie for dessert.

ripa

Thanks guys. This looks great.

ripa

Quick ride report.

Let me start by saying what a great area. The map you guys provided was wonderful. I could walk from the B&B we stayed at right to the main road through Round Top

I did the 29-mile route minus the trip up to the Big Red Barn. So it was basically a 21-mile loop. I did two and a half laps or a little shy of 52 miles before I had to call it quits because we had dinner plans. More on that later. It took 2 hours 35 min so it was a blast.

The roads were well paved, rolling hills and that were both challenging but not to the point that you would complain about them. At one point, I hit 37 miles per hour on long downhill. I only saw ten vehicles the entire time. Lots of great countryside, two deer, several hawks, and one cow stampede when I rode past and changed gears. I guess the chain rattled enough to frighten a calf that started to run and the rest followed along.

Dinner was at Royers, (thanks for the suggestion). Shrimp Stuffed grilled quail to start, rolls, creamy jalapeno soup, a steak you could cut with a fork and then the desert. Two huge slices of pie and ice cream. Oh my goodness. We can’t wait to go back. Matter of fact we book the next trip for early November.

Thanks again for the route map. I look forward to exploring this area even more.