I chose the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route to position me to reach 200+ miles for the week needing one more after today. The 36.38 miles today did that with only 23 miles needed to reach 200+. The week totals 177.17 miles and May totals 703.01 miles. The Lynksey R300 turned to 1,105 miles with this ride. The Lynskey is the first bike in a long time where the original tires lasted this long. My Stradalli original tires had a flat before I took the first ride and the Canyon Endurace original tires couldn’t handle the road debris around here with too many flats to remember before I changed to Gatorskins.

So far in 2020 I rode this route 7 times, 5 times on the Canyon Endurace and 2 times on the Lynskey R300. Strava tells me today was harder than my usual effort. Below is a summary of the 7 rides.

As usual I took a screenshot of the weather as I got ready to leave to remember after the ride. I started at 11:03 AM and the wind caught my attention: from the south at 10 mph with 20 mph gusts. This is not a problem for the first 20 miles of the route but if that held the last 16 miles would be into a headwind. My legs are still tired from this week’s biking so a headwind for 16 miles is not in my favor. Until I made the left turn onto FM 1314 my average speed was 14.1 mph but the headwind wore me down by the time I finished it dropped to 13.4 mph or 13.5 mph depending on SportTracks’ or Strava calculations. At the finish the wind was still from the south but 15 mph. No wonder my legs felt heavy.

I encountered two celebrations along the route. The first was for Journey in Sherwood Trails and the second was a school parade in Oakhurst. The parade comes from the schools being closed for COVID-19 with cars getting signs and cheering people as they drive around neighborhoods waving and honking as children are out in their yards. It touches me to see the people in the parade wanting to cheer up the children who stay home missing their classmates.

I also encountered sadness. I stopped at the Rosewood Cemetery to visit my wife’s grave. After visiting her grave I walked back to my bike and saw a man kneeling beside a grave across the street. I walked my bike closer and asked him if he had lost his wife. He told me she was killed April 26th when her vehicle was hit by a dump truck in Cleveland (not sure what happened). He misses her (she was 42 and he is 43) and they were married for almost 10 years. We talked more and I told him I was sorry for his loss. I did not ask his name. The news story link from Montgomery County Police Reporter.