Looking at the weather radar before starting today’s bike ride I wasn’t certain I would finish the route I had in mind. Radar showed rain surrounding Kingwood but far enough away for the route to be out of the yellow and green of the radar. I stuck with my rule that if it isn’t raining start the ride. I can always turn back, stop or keep pedaling if rain comes.

The Canyon Endurace was the bike for the ride, giving my Lynskey R300 a day off to recover from yesterday’s wet ride. We rolled away at 10:15 AM following my “Kingwood to Ramsey Road – Huffman” route. If the rain got me there are several other routes I can fall back to. This would be the 4th time I biked this route in 2021.

Today’s 38.97 miles was the longest of the 4. I think the increase in distance came in the first 4 miles as I varied some streets on the way to exit Kingwood. With 2 rides so far this week I’m at 60.63 miles. July moved to 198.67 miles, just shy of 25% of the way to my 800 mile goal. YTD 2021 stands at 4,959 miles. 2021 still trails 2020 by 116 miles. That difference has not changed much recently. Last year on July 6th I rode 32.3 miles so today closed the gap by about 7 miles.

I should’ve taken a screenshot of the radar before I began the bike ride. As I followed the route the clouds parted some letting a few patches of blue come through. July is supposed to be a hot month in Houston but not for this bike ride. Weather overview: start 80 (81% humidity, 74 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind SE 10 mph; finish 82 (78% humidity, 74.8 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind SE 10 mph. I finished the bike ride at 1:20 PM before the usual peak temperature. The normal temperature for this date is 92.7, 10 degrees higher. I wore a new pair of arm sleeves for sun protection but they seemed to cool my arms too.

When I reached Ramsey Road I turned left and then I saw what looked like another biker at the bridge. Because the clouds looked wet to the southeast I didn’t stay long after saying hi to the biker. I didn’t want to take a chance of getting wet again.

The ride back to Kingwood generally enjoyed a tailwind. This allowed me to increase my overall average speed to 13.8 mph.

After the ride I finished watching stage 10 of the Tour de France and waxed the chain on the Canyon. The chain made squeaky sounds during the ride. I think riding in the wet took a toll on the chain.