I was kind of lazy yesterday (Sunday) and did not ride. It was 58 degrees when I got home from church around 11:30 am. Then I decided to watch Liège-Bastogne-Liège bike race while waiting for the clouds to go away and the temperature to improve to the 60’s at least. Around 2 pm the sun peaked through a little and the temperature creeped up to the low 60’s. By then I was into the race and kept watching. By the time the race ended (I watched from the DVR) I made up my mind it was too late to ride.

Today was different. The sun came up shining and the temperature was 75 when I left on the bike ride at 11:43 am. I chose the “New Caney – Roman Forest – Valley Ranch” planning on biking 40+ miles to make a big dent in my April mileage goal. The route delivered and I biked 41.55 miles improving my April total to 522 miles; only 78 miles more to go. The weather during the bike ride: start 75 (53% humidity), clear, wind NW 10 mph. Finish 79 (48% humidity), clear, wind NW 9 mph, gusts 20 mph.

Wardrobe selection for the bike ride: shorts, long sleeve jersey (no thermal) with a short sleeve jersey over that. At the beginning of the ride I was a little cool when in the shade but after exerting energy riding into the wind I warmed up pretty quickly.

This fit my motto of riding into the wind until the turn around point and enjoying the tailwind home helping tired legs. The stiff NW wind gusts made the trip to Roman Forest hard but riding east into Roman Forest wasn’t so bad with the wind generally behind me. Riding back out wasn’t quite as easy with the headwind gusts.

As I rode through Tavola I stopped and took these photos.

Behind where I took these photos construction was underway on more streets.

Leaving Tavola I turned right onto Roman Forest Blvd. With the helpful tailwind I made good time to the right turn onto Magnolia Bend. Some of the streets in Roman Forest have bumpy asphalt where the culverts have been replaced under the road. Magnolia Bend has more than its share of these. Riding onto Willow Way I went by the new Dogwood Elementary school before making my way to Appian Way. At the turn I could see new asphalt on both directions of Appian Way with the old pothole section now nice and smooth. Riding east I stopped at Galaxy Drive and took this photo showing the old street to the back of Roman Forest. I used to bike that way but the street is two way and the potholes are numerous.

To the left in the photo the split lanes end and shift to the road at the top. I think the last time I biked on the two way street I had a dog chase after the road turns left and goes back to Roman Forest Blvd.

Once I was back at I-69/US59 the south bound service road with the right rear quarter tailwind biking speed picked up again allowing me to improve my average speed to 15.0 mph which I held all the way back to Kings Manor and into Kingwood. I was in front of all the school traffic finishing the bike ride at 2:40 pm.

More great weather for Tuesday and maybe I will ride 40+ miles again.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary