My road bike felt left out so today I was back on the road. This might be one of the last days with the temperature close 100 degrees or Friday might be. The weather forecast still thinks Sunday the high temperature will be in the 80’s. Well today it was 95 when I got back home on the ride. The dry heat meant a free flow of perspiration. My recent addition of wrist bands continues to slow down the flow onto the brake levers/shifters. They barely get wet now. I wrung them out once during the ride around the 16 mile point. My gloves did not yield much water when I tried to wring them out which proves the wrist bands absorbed the bulk of the sweat. The scattered clouds and very light breeze did not provide much relief from the heat. Stopping at an underpass provided some relief while I waited on the traffic to clear out at Kingwood Drive and US59.

I added some little variations to the Roman Forest – Valley Ranch route. The starting mile was new and going through the Auburn Trails on this route was different. Because of the changes I wasn’t sure how long this route would be. It turned out to be 28.55 miles at 15.3 mph average speed, max speed of 20.4 mph. The only problem on this route was the “love bug” flying along side Loop 494. I think the tall grass beside the road harbors the pesky bugs. The number of bugs seems to be increasing but maybe the vehicles driving by will lower the bug population. I see many cars and trucks with hundreds of bug splats on their windshields. I think I was the only rider out along my route.

Some statistics:

• 1:52:00 moving time, 9:27 time stopped
• 101.7 miles this week
• 118.02 miles in September
• 4836.29 miles YTD
• Link to RideWithGPS.com map and metrics

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