My plan to start biking earlier didn’t happen today. I was watching the Volta a Portugal with about 15 kilometers to go. A group of 5 riders were the breakaway almost 7 minutes ahead of the peloton. I thought things would be stable while I brushed my teeth. When I came back in a few minutes I saw the message in Portuguese in the lower left that the race was neutralized. I wondered what happened. Maybe a large crash or something. In a few minutes there was a replay and I think the problem is the breakaway turned right at a fork in the road with a policeman waving a yellow flag. The peloton came to the same fork and went left. I don’t know how long it took the race director to see the problem but the breakaway group was stopped and the peloton kept riding but at slow pace. After about 10 minutes the peloton came to a stop and the race officials talked to people. The race was restarted with the breakaway positioned 6+ minutes in front of the peloton before they were started. The break stayed away and then one of the riders took off from the break for the win. All of this delayed my getting ready as I wanted to see how this finished out. I started the ride at 12:14.

With a later start I decided to ride the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route for 31.3 miles. It was 94 degrees with scattered clouds. The wind was light and variable directions. I thought with the starting time I might cross paths with the Amtrak train in Huffman. The first crossing on Old Atascocita Road no train in sight. The last time i saw the train I was in Huffman and it was about 1:59. I rolled up to the crossing on FM2100 and FM1960. A FedEx Freight truck pulled up beside me and the crossing lights started blinking. The FedEx truck decided to cross the tracks and as he moved over the tracks the crossing arm came down on top of the trailer and then fell to the ground as it detached from the cross arm pole. I guessed this was the Amtrak train and got my phone out to snap some pictures.

The train is on the way to New Orleans.

After the train passed I rode across FM1960 to the Huffman Chevron for a rest break. At this point I was 19.9 miles into the ride. I didn’t want to stay too long so I could get back home to watch the Tour of Utah. Bike race watching overload today: Volta a Burgos followed by the Volta a Portugal followed by the Tour of Utah.

I left the Chevron station about 2:15 to finish the 11+ miles to home. I stopped the Elemnt ride at 3:06 after biking 31.3 miles. This pushed my year to date miles to 5029 and this week’s miles to 176. I am at 22% of my August goal of 800 miles.

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Home weather at the end of the ride