You should warm-up before this ride, because the first 5 miles are tough. Lots of climbing on the way to Banner Elk on NC194. On the other side of Banner Elk is a nice climb on Hickory Nut Gap Road. Then there's the 2 mile jaunt from Linville to Grandfather Mountain on US221. By the time you get to Blowing Rock, you've already climbed about 4000'. Fortunately there's plenty of time to recover before the route's "feature" climb over Snake Mountain on Meat Camp Road. Save a little energy for the climb on George's Gap Road at about the 85m point. As always, the "rollers" between the climbs add a lot of character.
| Blood, Sweat, & Gears 2001 | ||||
| At | Turn | Go | On Segment | Notes |
| 0.0 | START at Valle Crucis Elementary | |||
| 0.0 | Right | 8.5 | NC194 | |
| 8.5 | Left | 0.3 | NC184 | Banner Elk |
| 8.8 | Right | 6.5 | Hickory Nut Gap (1342) | |
| 15.3 | Left | 0.6 | Watauga Street (1345) | |
| 15.9 | Left | 6.0 | NC181 | |
| 21.9 | Straight | 15.8 | US221 - North | |
| 37.7 | Right | 1.4 | Main Street - Blowing Rock | |
| 39.1 | Right | 1.8 | US321 | Merge |
| 40.9 | Left | 2.7 | Greenhill Road | |
| 43.6 | Right | 5.0 | Blue Ridge Parkway - North | |
| 48.6 | Left | 0.2 | Deerfield Road | |
| 48.8 | Right | 4.0 | Bamboo Road (1312) | |
| 52.8 | Left | 1.7 | US421 | |
| 54.5 | Right | 3.2 | NC194 | |
| 57.7 | Left | 11.0 | Meat Camp Road (1340) | Cross Snake Mt. |
| 68.7 | Left | 5.0 | NC88 | |
| 73.7 | Left | 1.0 | US421 | Trade, TN |
| 74.7 | Right | 8.5 | Old 421 | |
| 83.2 | Right | 0.2 | Dale Adams Road | |
| 83.4 | Right | 4.6 | Georges' Gap Road (1213) | |
| 88.0 | Straight | 3.9 | Bethel Road (1201) | |
| 91.9 | Left | 5.3 | US321 | |
| 97.2 | Right | 2.2 | Mast Gap Road (1117) | |
| 99.4 | Right | 1.4 | NC194 | |
| 100.8 | Left | FINISH @ Valle Crucis Elementary | ||
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