Saturday, January 16, 2027 · Franklin Mountains, El Paso, TX

Ride the El Paso Puzzler on a plan, not a hunch

Fifty-two miles, 5,600 ft and ninety percent singletrack through the Franklin Mountains, billed as the toughest race in Texas. Redline Athlete forecasts your finish from your own numbers, prices every climb against your reserve, and puts the plan on your head unit.

No card. No account needed to try it.

01 · The course

Fifty-two miles of desert singletrack

52.2 miThe 50 mile course
5,635 ftTotal climbing · 108 ft per mile
5,894 ftHigh point · low point 4,170 ft
90%Singletrack

The course opens with a short doubletrack sprint into a 400 ft climb, then the 1,500 ft ascent to Mundy's Gap and its rock garden descent, a 600 ft climb at Northern Pass, and for the 50 an 800 ft climb on Boulder Dash and Sotol Forest before the Mule Shoe loop and the Mad Cow descent. Figures from the MTB Project race route (52.2 mi, 5,635 ft, 90% singletrack) and the organiser. When you load the course file, the app measures it for itself.

90% singletrack10% doubletrack and road
02 · What it asks of you

One climb of fifteen hundred feet, then the day starts

Mundy's Gap is the number everyone knows. What decides the Puzzler is what you have left after it, on a course that spends most of its length above four thousand feet.

Mundy's Gap

Fifteen hundred feet in one go, early. The plan measures it as a sustained effort against your threshold and tells you what you will have left at the top, and whether the rock garden after it is ridden on fresh hands.

Ninety percent singletrack

Rocky desert trail caps your speed regardless of fitness. The plan separates where watts pay, which on the Puzzler is the climbs, from where they do not.

Altitude

The course lives between 4,170 and 5,894 ft. Tell the plan whether you live at altitude and it adjusts your sustainable power to the thinner air.

January desert

A cold start and a warm afternoon. The temperature you set should be the one you expect on the exposed climbs, not at the line.

03 · What the plan tells you

What the plan tells you about the Puzzler

Your finish time

A forecast from your weight, fitness and the course file, with a pace target you can hold rather than an average someone else rode.

The climb that empties you

Every climb ranked by what it takes out of your anaerobic reserve, not by how tall it looks. On the Puzzler the climb that empties you is more likely Boulder Dash at mile forty than Mundy's Gap at mile five.

Fuel that covers the effort

Carbohydrate burned against what you can absorb, hour by hour, with a warning when the plan runs short. Five to eight hours in dry air at altitude: fluid and carbohydrate both, and the plan says when.

Markers on your head unit

The longest climb, the hardest one for you, the recovery window before it and the technical stretch late in the day, sent to your Garmin, Wahoo or watch as waypoints.

04 · Proof

Fitted against real race files

The model is fitted against recorded races, not lab assumptions. On a Chequamegon 40 validation ride it predicted 2:24:28 against an actual finish of 2:24:20.

Predicted finish2:24:28
Actual finish2:24:20
Difference8 seconds

Your prediction comes with a confidence range, because honesty beats a single flattering number. The Puzzler has not yet been run through the model on a recorded file. When a rider shares one, this page gets its own numbers.

Three steps before race morning

  1. Load the course. The 50 mile course is on MTB Project and the organiser posts the current year on Trailforks. Export the GPX and upload it.
  2. Say what the ground is. The trail’s own corners suggest where the ground changes; you name each section or describe the course in a sentence. Worth 13 to 17% of a finish time.
  3. Set the pace and get the plan. Weight and fitness once, then one slider drawn on what each pace costs: finish forecast, reserve at the line, fatigue curve, a fueling schedule, and the markers that matter sent to your head unit or watch. No power meter required.

El Paso Puzzler questions

How long does the El Paso Puzzler take?

The winners are out around four and a half hours and the field spreads past eight. The calculator forecasts your time from your own numbers.

Is there a shorter option?

The organiser runs shorter courses on the same day. Load the file for your distance; the plan is the same.

Is it really free?

Yes. Run the full analysis as a guest, no account. Pro ($9/month, or $59/year) adds saved rides, a saved athlete profile and the head-unit export.

Other race plans

Same model, one page per course.

Every race on the calendar

Find out what Boulder Dash is going to cost

Same course, your fitness, your pacing. Two minutes of setup now beats fifty-two miles of guessing.