After watching the Binck Bank Tour stage today I set out on my bike ride. I rode to the north following my “Kingwood – SH 242 – Kingwood” route and rode 33.55 miles. Now my mileage stands at 175.87 miles for this week and 545.52 miles for August, leaving 255 miles to reach my goal for the month. Year to date I biked 5,443 miles with 6,800 miles being my goal. I should surpass my goal for the year.

Start time was 10:24 am with the weather warming up. Weather during the bike ride: start 89 (66% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind SW 6 mph. Finish 95 (53% humidity), partly cloudy, wind S 6 mph. With the help of the light breeze bicycling to SH 242 required less effort and I built my average speed up to 14.3 mph.

When I made the left turn onto SH 242 I could feel the breeze and wondered if I was going to fight all the back to Kingwood. I rode west on SH 242 about 1/2 a mile to see how the work is progressing on Grand Texas. I took these photos.

From that distance it was hard to see any activity but there was a pickup truck moving towards the highway.

After the taking the photos I turned back to the east and rode on SpeedSportz Drive back to I-69/US59 and rode south. At New Caney I stopped at the Mobil station at the corner of FM 1485 and I-69/US59 to refill my water bottle. The heat was drawing plenty of sweat from my body and I knew I wouldn’t have enough water to finish the ride. Back on the bike I rode south and onot Valley Ranch Parkway. As I was bicycling I remembered an appointment my wife had so I planned on stopping at The Grand Parkway overpass in the shade to call her. As I rode to the shade I saw another biker there and as I got closer I recognized him by the MD Anderson Cancer jersey as Ronnie Clark who I rode with several times over the last couple of years. I stopped and we chatted about biking and other things. After I called my wife we rode off together continuing the conversation. As we approached the street to the left into the Azalea District I went left while he went straight. It was great to catch up with him.

From there I was back on the I-69/US59 service road riding south. Next stop was the Circle K/Valero station at Northpark Drive to refill my water bottle to take me to the finish.While I was at the Circle K store and walking outside after filling my water bottle a man got out of a white pickup and walked towards me. He started telling me about the bike ride he had yesterday and the flat tire from a piece of glass 2 miles from finishing the ride and walking back home. We laughed about all the debris on the shoulder of FM 1960. He said he usually rides the Spring Creek Greenway without the flat tire problem.

After visiting with Ronnie I noticed my speed was up enough to increase my overall average speed to 14.6 mph which I held until the 29.4 mile point in Kingwood. I finished the ride at 1:08 pm before it really got hot.

Saturday I plan on biking but earlier to see the Bike Barn cyclists over by Huffman.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary