I paused stage 7 of the Tour de France to get ready to start today’s bike ride. Wheels rolled on my Canyon Endurace CF SLX bike at 8:22 AM to begin the bike ride. I was a little leery remembering the weather forecast called for rain but the streets were dry and the radar showed no rain nearby. I decided to ride my usual Saturday route, “Atascocita – FM 2100 – Walden”, to see other bikers.

Not too far into the ride I stopped to take this photo of me. The colors were fitting since it is the 4th of July weekend.

No bikers crossed my route as I approached FM 1960 on Atascocita Shores Drive. Usually I see a few before then. Once I started east across Lake Houston they began to arrive. (you can see them in the video)

The weather continued dry but the cloudy sky but when I reached FM 2100 I changed my route due to the dark and threatening sky to the north. Instead of riding on north on FM 2100 as I planned I made a u-turn and retraced my ride back to FM 1960. On Fairlake Lane I felt a few sprinkles. I couldn’t see the sky to the north because of the trees. Getting close to FM 1960 more sprinkles hit me. I hoped the rain wouldn’t catch over Lake Houston. With a nice tailwind I rode quickly over Lake Houston to the west. The rain held off except for more sprinkles.

While I rode west on Old Atascocita Road trying to avoid the rain two bikers passed me headed east. I hope they stayed dry. I think they started at the church on Fairlake Lane.

Back at Atascocita Shores Drive the light changed quickly and i turned left heading to Walden but making my way through the side streets I looked at the dark clouds over Walden and decided to not bike there as more sprinkles fell. Pinehurst Trail Drive took me north with some light rain. But it went away and I thought the bike ride would be dry from there. Surprise! It wasn’t, watch the video to see what happened. Dry streets reappeared as I neared the end of the ride as I finished at 10:39 AM.

Weather conditions at the start and finish: start 78 n(90% humidity, 75.2 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind calm; finish 78 (93% humidity, 75.8 dew point), light rain, wind NE 10 mph. I got wet but no lightning so I kept pedaling. No worse than from sweating. I hosed off the Canyon bike at home.

Technically the route wasn’t what I said but I kept the label. I biked this route 12 times in 2021 so far. The 1st and last time are the same distance, very unusual. My week totals 179.49 miles. July is up to 111.85 miles, 14% of my 800 mile goal. 2021 YTD miles (4872) trails 2020 by 117. I can’t seem to close the difference much. I still have a day left to make it a 200 mile week. I’ll see how the weather works with that thought.