I didn’t get started quite as early as I wanted to with wheels down at 10:04 am. The delay was from me watching a little more of stage 12 of the TdF than I should have. As I rolled out my plan was to ride the “Stroker Road – Huffman” route but around the 4 mile point I changed to the “Kingwood – Hare Cook Road – Kingwood” route to add 4 miles to the ride. With the different route I rode 45.54 miles. The last time I did this route was May 14th, 2018. I didn’t see any rabbits or hares on this ride. They probably stayed home in the A/C watching TV.

Weather during the ride: start 85 (75% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind SW 9 mph. Finish 95 (52% humidity), a few clouds, wind W 10 mph. The Sahara dust wasn’t as noticeable and I didn’t have any trouble breathing.

Not many stops during the ride. The first one was at the Chevron station on the west side of Lake Houston on FM 1960. After this station there isn’t another one until the route exits Hare Cook Road onto FM 2100 and I wanted to top off my water bottle with ice and water. It lasted all the way to the second stop at the Huffman Chevron where I took a rest break to cool off in the shade, eat a Clif Bar and drink lots of ice water. The Wahoo Elemnt ride summary up to that stop.

The stop lasted about 25 minutes, long enough for the PowerPod to go to sleep. Before leaving I refilled the water bottle for the 11+ miles to the finish. Biking west the headwind slowed me down some but my legs were up to the effort even though it was almost 37 miles into the bike ride. The headwind dropped off when I turned right to bicycle through Atascocita Shores and Kings River to W. Lake Houston Parkway. I held my average speed at 14.4 mph until I got to Town Center in Kingwood where stops and traffic slowed me down. As I went through Town Center passing the closed McDonald’s the big excavator was picking up the last pieces of the building and leveling the ground. Looks like they are going to start rebuilding from Hurricane Harvey and the flood. This has been a long time waiting and wondering if they were going to do something. Bicycling on I finished the ride at 1:51 pm just in time for heat of the day to roll in, but it was hot already.

Friday’s weather forecast says the high will be 101, the first triple digit temperature day of 2018. North Texas is even hotter. Maybe I will start earlier then.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary