After watching stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya from Spain I walked by my Cervelo Caledonia bike resting on the rack. The habit to squeeze the rear tire produced bad news, it was flat. I got the bike down and removed the rear wheel. The Cervelo is having a tough time with the rear tire flat since I ran over a sharp rock several weeks ago. The first minutes of the video recaps the problem and solution, hopefully no more rear tire flats. Some photos of the flat tire saga.

A stiff wind awaited as I got ready to ride. Between the flat tire and wanting it to warm up a couple more degrees I didn’t start the bike ride until 12:57 PM. This week I plan on all bike rides outside to go south and maybe east. Today I chose my Atascocita – Walden – Huffman route to start it off. 68 degrees is not my preferred riding scenario and the wind of 23 mph and 31 mph gusts makes it even less appealing. It was warm enough that I didn’t wear leg warmers but a long sleeve thermal jersey and wind jacket were required. The NE wind direction changed the typical headwind and tailwind places along the route. The sun hiding behind clouds made it feel chilly and the jersey and jacket blunted that most of the time. The hardest sections were riding east over Lake Houston, north on FM2100 to Huffman, and north over the river on W Lake Houston Parkway. I finished at 3:37 PM and getting out of the cool wind felt great.