This is the first time I've ridden this loop, and I did it twice today. At the end of Barton Hills things get pretty steep for a while around Tether and Barton Skyway, and the first lap I didn't have my turns quite down, and of course the steep parts are right on the turns. Oops! The second lap was a bit smoother. 14.7mph avg for the first lap, 15.0 for the second. I stopped in the middle to watch a friend win a thousand bucks in a poker game and refill a water bottle.

This route is great -- low traffic overall, albeit with a short stretch on Barton Springs. The hill climbing is steady with only a few stretches that are really very flat. Clawson and Del Curto were a surprise; I was expecting to cruise through, but they were hillier than I expected. The last stretch is pleasant, as Banister is downhill and S 5th is pleasantly smooth with only a gentle uphill.

I think this'll be a good route for training, as I didn't mind doing it a few times in rapid succession. The road surfaces are alright, more of the gravelly austin road texture than smooth pavement, but whatever.

My average speed seems stuck around 15, but in this case there are a lot of stop signs and a few traffic lights and my computer didn't discount much time (the average speed * distance is only a minute or two off the stopwatch, so it didn't auto-off much at all.) On the upside, a couple weeks ago when my heart rate passed 170 I was seeing stars and really close to my limit; today several times while standing to climb my heart rate would hit 175 or 178 and with only a few hard breaths at the top I'd shift up and start cranking again seconds later. Score.