48.4 miles, the longest bike ride so far this month. I needed to make up for not riding yesterday so I chose the “SR242 – FM1314” route with almost the entire ride in Montgomery County. The ride started at 10:18 am with the weather looking perfect (for me anyway) at 92 degrees, partly cloudy sky and the wind from the SW. As I rode through Woodridge Forest passing a couple of model homes with flagpoles the flags were almost straight out making me think to myself “this is what Texas biking is really like”. The air felt dry and the sun was everywhere. My new sport sunglasses dimmed the brightness but not my enthusiasm for the ride.

As I biked north alongside I-69/US59 the wind propelled me helping reach SH 242 and the turn to the west in good time. The ride wasn’t quite as easy on SH 242 with the wind in my face though the trees helped to break it up sometimes. At FM 1485 I stopped at the Shell station to refill my water bottle since it would be 13 miles to the Valero station on FM 1314 where I planned to take a longer break. The sky looked so good I took these two pictures before leaving the Shell station.

I like the ice from the Shell station because it is small pellets that pours from the ice machine chilling the water quickly. The blue sky and few puffy clouds were beautiful to watch moving across in front of me as I rode to the west. The wind continued to make it hard to get my speed above 15 to 16 mph until I got to FM 1314 where the route turned left heading to the SE and the wind was from the right side. My overall average speed had dropped from 15.1 mph to 14.8 mph by the time I got to FM 1314. I stopped at the Texaco station just east of Gene Campbell Blvd. to top off my water bottle for the 4 miles to the Valero station.

Riding SE I made good time to the Valero station at Sorters Road getting there about 12:50 pm and 36 miles into the ride. The closer I got to the Valero station the more I anticipated the large cold fountain Orange Gatorade I would buy. After making the purchase I settled down in the shade outside sitting on a sales newspaper and sipping the cold Gatorade. After a few minutes I brought out the snack crackers I had and washed them down with more cold Gatorade. After 30 minutes I got back on the Stradalli Red Pro 14 to ride the 12+ miles to finish the ride.

The wind continued to help me until I turned right onto Old Sorters Road where it became a headwind off an on until I rode through Kingwood Place and to I-69/US59. From there I rode mostly east and the wind wasn’t much a problem but the starting and stopping for intersections in Kingwood slowed me down. I pushed the ride stop button on the Elemnt computer at 2:22 pm, glad to finish the bike ride. With today’s miles I am at 432 miles for August, 368 miles left to reach my goal for August.

More great Texas bike ride weather Wednesday and I plan on another 40+ mile ride. Not everyone is thrilled with the summer heat like I am though.

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