Before the Easter Hill Country Tour was held, there were a number of things that had to be in place to make it happen. The hills and the wildflowers had to be there. The mild climate with an early warm spring was required. All the towns and the little back roads connecting them had to be in place. Finally, the cyclists and the Texas bicycle clubs were needed to be there to put the event together.

The Hills. The Texas Hill Country started forming around ten million years ago when the Edwards Plateau was created by an upward thrust of the Earth's crust along the Balcones fault line. This produced an area of land around 2000 feet above the prairie to the east. The creeks and rivers cut valleys and canyons into the limestone as they made their way to the southeast. After ten million years of erosion by sun, wind, and rain we have the hill country as we see it today.

The Wildflowers. The Spring Wildflowers in the Texas Hill Country are among the most spectacular anywhere. With Bluebonnets, Paintbrush, and many more covering the landscape.

The Climate. The Texas Hill Country in central Texas is far enough south that is has mild winters with an early Spring. By Easter the average high temperature in the Hill Country is in the 70ís with the lows in the 50ís - ideal weather for cycling!

The Towns. The many friendly historic towns settled in the 1840ís make the Hill Country special. These towns were the home to such famous people as President Johnson and Admiral Nimitz.

The Roads. The State of Texas has the largest number of paved roads in the nation. The State highways together with the farm to market roads and county highways are constantly improved and provide cyclists with an ideal way to explore the scenery and little towns of the Hill Country.

The Cyclists. After several periods of popularity and decline, cycling started becoming popular again in the United States around the mid 1960's. During this time, several small cycling clubs formed in Texas. This was a time when a cyclists would always stop when they ran into each other and exchange phone numbers. Cyclists in Texas all knew each other by name. These riders quickly discovered that the Texas Hill Country provided an ideal place to ride. Clubs started leading rides in the Hill Country and sharing their experiences with others.

In 1968, Rose Grahm (Blatch) of the Houston AYH Bicycle Club (later to become the Houston Bicycle Club) would write an article for American Cyclists (later to become BICYCLING! magazine) on her tour in the Hill Country. This article would be reprinted in 1972 in a book called "The Best of BICYCLING!". The tour was later described in the "American Bicycle Atlas" published in 1972. The Houston club would repeat the tour each fall for several years to correspond with the Wurst Fest in New Branfauls.

In 1971 and 1972, the International Bicycle Touring Society (ITBS), a non-profit, member supported organization that ran cycling trips all over the world put together some tours of the Texas Hill Country. These tours brought together for the first time, cyclists from all over the country to the Texas Hill Country. Many of the participants of these tours would go on to develop and organize the Easter Hill Country Tour.

In 1973, several of the clubs decided it would be nice to host a short, inexpensive organized tour of the area for cyclists similar to rides like TOSRV in Ohio. Bill Craighead of the Fort Worth Bicycling Association talked to Barbara Hutchison of the Lubbock Bicycle Club and they decided to have an annual tour in the Texas Hill Country. Barbara and the Lubbock club would run the first annual bicycle tour of Texas Hill Country starting and ending in Fredricksberg. It would be a three day tour over Easter Weekend and cyclists from all over would be invited.