I decided to ride to the north following my “New Caney – Tavola – Valley Ranch” route. Monday I rode to the north and got caught in heavy rain. Looking at the weather radar no rain showed but the forecast listed rain. I hoped to get back without getting wet again. I watched two bike races before starting today’s bike ride: Vuelta a Andalucia – Ruta del Sol and the Giro d’Italia. I missed biking the last two days because of rain so I wanted to ride today.

This was the 7th time riding this route in 2021. I biked 4 times on the Canyon Endurace and 3 times on the Lynskey R300.

Starting at 10:59 AM riding my Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike the temperature was 79 under a mostly cloudy sky. Wind was from the east at 9 mph not posing much of a problem while I biked to the north. Before leaving I checked the weather forecast and the chance of rain increased to 75% around 2 PM. I thought I would be back before that. I finished the ride at 1:36 PM.

There was an opportunity to stop at Pat’s Donuts in Porter on the way back to Kingwood for an apple fritter. I made good time and got to Pat’s about 12:50 PM, 10 minutes before they closed. But no apple fritters and no blueberry cake donuts so no snack to fuel the rest of the ride home.

That turned out to be somewhat of a blessing. If they had an apple fritter or the cake donuts I would’ve taken time to eat before continuing the bike ride. As I got closer to Kingwood the sky to the southeast looked threatening. Once I was back in Kingwood I felt a few sprinkles and around 3 miles from home light rain began. If I had stayed at Pat’s the rain might have moved closer to me and instead of 3 miles in the rain it might have longer. The big difference in today’s rain versus Monday, no lightning today and I was much closer to home. The last 3 miles I got soaked but not too gritty. I will wipe down the Canyon after it drys.

Today’s ride covered 35.98 miles, improving the week to 87.7 miles. No 200 miles this week. May totals 569.3 miles versus my 660 mile goal for the month. Here is how 2021 YTD miles stacks up to previous years. (This includes road and Zwift miles)