The Wind Almost Forgot To Show Up. Jalapeno 100 Bike Ride Harlingen
I made a mistake, forgetting to bring my leg warmers. As I drove from my hotel to the starting line the sun came up and I hope the temperature would too. It was 50 degrees when I got there. Back at the hotel I pulled on the red arm warmers I brought up my legs. They fit tightly but I figured they would be better than nothing.
The 67 mile riders left a couple of minutes at 7:27 AM. The arm warmers were doing their thing and my legs weren’t too cold. My fingers were a different story. As we rode north along side US77 the sun was above the eastern horizon and when I wasn’t in the shade it warmed me some. The wind was calm and once we got to the wind turbines they were not turning but facing north. I kept an eye on them during the ride to judge the wind direction and strength. In Raymondville we turned to the east. I rode with a couple of cyclists. Robert follows me on Twitter and took a selfie of us. His friend Rey was on a Canyon Endurace similar to what I was riding today, Canyon Endurace CF 7. The wind was still not much of an issue. At the rest stop around 33 miles we stopped and took the arm warmers off my legs. They were stretched to far to use anymore and I didn’t want to carry them so I put them in the trash.
The turbines started to move with the wind from the east as we rode south through San Perlita. By the time I made the turn to the west on FM490 the wind was stronger but a nice tailwind pushing all the way to US77. Turning left onto the US77 frontage road the wind became a problem from there to the finish. At 47 miles I stopped at the rest stop for ice water and a snack, talked to the two ladies manning the stop. The next rest stop was at 55 miles, about 11 miles to go. More snacks, a fudgesicle and talked with a couple men helping at the stop. Fortunately the road surface on the frontage road was fairly smooth asphalt except for a section where we crossed under US77 and rode south on the other side down a water drain way.
Due to road construction the route went west on SH107 in Combes which reduced the SE wind with some trees and houses shielding the road. At Primera Road I rode east back to US77 and the wind. From there it was about 3 miles to the finish. More time into the wind and then to the finish at 1:05 PM. While the increased this was not as bad as some of my previous Jalapeno 100 rides. SportTracks shows riding it 4 times but some of them were before I used SportTracks.