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Are you local? Until a few months ago, I lived on the north side of town and did 90% of my outdoor riding up north of the Woodlands. The locals are most definitely hostile to cyclists, with or without the IM course. I'm just surprised it took this many years for it to become a real issue for the IM.
I'm local (live and work in The Woodlands) and have been riding these roads since well before IMTX ever someone's crazy idea. Anyways, I don't feel like the locals are any more hostile than anywhere else or any worse now than 10 years ago. I worry less about hostile locals than I do roads that are unsafe due to construction issues which make it very tight.
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I'd probably be happy with a multi loop course as long as it gets far enough north to enjoy some of the hills.
I hate to tell you this but there are essentially no multi-loop options available that would include any significant amount of hills. There's actually an almost perfect two loop lollipop course that goes out the traditional way all the way to Highway 105, takes a by-pass around the town of Montgomery, then comes back down 149 to 1488 back towards The Woodlands. Once there hit the traditional route again and do the loop over again. But, not too many hills.
The rough math is:
T1 to FM1488 = 12 miles
FM1488, FM2854, (cross 105), Lonestar Parkway, backroads to FM149, then FM1488 to intersection above = 44 miles
Repeat that loop = 44 miles
FM1488 to T2 = 12 miles