I wanted today’s ride to be on a route I haven’t rode in awhile. I checked SportTracks and saw the last time I rode my “Atascocita – Balmoral – Walden” route was April 19th. That was where I rode today. A “cool” front arrived during the night dropping the temperature to 69 degrees when I got up around 6:15 AM along with lower humidity and dew point. Before starting the bike ride I made a few phone calls following up on problems or questions. That delayed the start to 10:16 AM. I rode my Cervelo Caledonia while waiting for Lynskey to come up with a solution to installing the wrong crankset on the Helix. That was one of the phone calls I made. Maybe they will decide by the end of today.

When I checked the route history the average distance was 34 miles and today I biked 34.34 miles pushing the week’s total to xxx miles, close enough to 220 miles that I can get there with tomorrow’s ride. This is new route in that I created it in 2022. Five of the 6 rides have been on my Cervelo Caledonia. The route is all west of Lake Houston though I get close to the lake at FM 1960 and Atascocita Shores Drive. Some of the streets in the area are under construction so maybe I couldn’t biked parts of this route in 2020 or 2021. The railroad overpass construction on Timber Forest south of Greens Road appears to progressed but I didn’t get close enough to see the details. A small crane was moving around and several pickup trucks may mean workers there. If I had to guess I think the beams have been placed and the small crane was laying the decking slabs in place. Maybe August will be a good opening time after all.

Weather at the start and 1:00 PM finish: start 78 (humidity 75%, dew point 70), partly cloudy, wind N 9 mph; finish 84 (humidity 63%, dew point 70), partly cloudy, wind NE 9 mph. I felt the difference in the humidity from the bike rides earlier this week. Single digit wind was nice but that will probably get stronger by Sunday. I was going to use my CamelBak but with the cooler temperature and lower humidity I stuck with the Polar water bottle. The Camelbak will probably be used tomorrow.

During the bike ride an officer from the City of Houston Animal Control left a message that they checked for the dogs at Rock Creek and Northpark but did not see them She said they will check again in the coming week. I’ve been avoiding that area so I didn’t know if they were there.

From the AXS.SRAM.com ride report: total moving time was 2:36:42; a whopping 53 RD shifts; I used the 35×13 gearing 1:18:16 (19.2 miles) and the 35×15 gearing 57:06 (11.3 miles).

Strava recorded a PR on Balmoral Greens eastbound (4:31). That’s good for me but Matthew Roberts’ 2:49 is the best time. I’m not the only cyclist riding there.