After watching stage 10 of the Tour I left home (11:04) to ride a much flatter “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” terrain. Nothing approaching 10% incline on this ride. I think the steepest incline was the 30 feet of greenbelt trail I rode up to get back on Forest Village Drive. I went on the trail to add a 1/10 of a mile to the ride. Entering the trail gradually drops about 8 feet and then runs about 200 feet with a sharp left turn up a sharp incline. I usually get out of the saddle to ride up the 30 feet rising up 12 to 15 feet. To keep it interesting the pavement is not even at the bottom and the top where there is a section of fence sticking out near the edge of the exit. After that the rest of the ride is Houston flat. I ended up biking 33.23 miles. I am not sure the extra trail section made much of a difference but it is a change of scenery. I have biked this route 23 times out of 104 rides this year.

The weather continues to be hot. A partly cloudy sky doesn’t hide the sun much and the wind was around 5 mph most of the ride. Thankfully the humidity dropped below 50% at my home weather station by the time I got back home at 1:58. The temperature at home then: 101, heat index 114. It wasn’t quite so hot when I stopped at the Huffman Chevron at the 22.9 mile point.

Before arriving at the Chevron I thought my timing would coincide with the Amtrak train passing through Huffman but I left at 1:08 before it arrived. Sitting in the shade at the Chevron station the breeze did it’s work and slowly dried my arms, jersey and shorts. When I stood up the Greensheet newspaper I sat on was soaked. One of these days I will read it before I sit on it.

Traffic was light to normal along the route. No issues with anything.

As I got ready to leave home my wife put a strip of gauze and tape over my neck incision. I didn’t realize it on yesterday’s ride until I got home that my helmet strap rubbed the area and some blood and fluid ran down my neck. I washed my jersey and helmet strap to remove the blood. The gauze did the trick and today no problem.

Last night when I took the trash out I checked my front tire and it was slightly softer than the rear tire. To be safe I took the wheel inside (it was still 90+ outside), removed the tube, pumped it up and checked for a leak. I couldn’t find any leak so I did the water test and still couldn’t find a leak. I put the tube back in the tire and remounted it. Airing the tire up I pout the wheel back on the bike. This morning the tire was still hard before the ride and after. Not sure what the problem was.

Lately the rear derailleur has not shifted from the 3rd gear to 4th, 4th to 5th and 5th to 6th without going pass the gear and shifting back. I turned the barrel adjuster 1 turn but that didn’t help. While I rode I thought of some possible causes and when I got home I sprayed some WD40 on the rear derailleur pivot hinges to see if dirt buildup might be the problem. I will check later to see it loosened up any.

I am making progress on my July goal of 834 miles. I am at 368.34 miles so far with 17 potential biking days left. Year to date I am up to 3585 miles.

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