In the quest for route variety I put my thinking cap on and came up with today’s route. It consists of roads I ride but in a different combination and direction. I had to come up with a new route name, “Porter – Woodbranch – Valley Ranch”. It goes north to Woodbranch Village, loops through Woodbranch to Roman forest Blvd. and back to I-69/US59 to return to Kingwood. After the conclusion of stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos on Flobike I started the bike ride at 10:24 AM. Today I rode my Lynskey R300 bike. I wasn’t sure how long the route would be but guessed 35 miles. It turned out to be 36.56 miles. This advanced the week to 118.98 miles, setting up a possible 200 mile week. August miles now total 138.29, about 17% of the way to my 800 mile goal. 2021 YTD still leads 2020 YTD by 11 miles. 2021 YTD is 5,926 miles. The bike ride finished at 1:33 PM.

No rain on today’s bike ride. I don’t miss that. The temperature remained in the 80’s while I biked. Cloud cover kept the sun from full power. Weather conditions: start 84 (74% humidity, 75.1 dew point), mostly cloudy, wind NE 10 mph; finish 87 (63% humidity, 73 dew point), overcast, wind NE 9 mph. The headwind was strong enough on the way to Woodbranch to require extra pedaling effort. I enjoyed the corresponding tailwind on the way back to Kingwood.

Since installing the Robert Axle Project Lightning thru axles on my Lynskey R300 I noticed how quietly it is while riding. Before the disc brakes rubbed and now they don’t. I haven’t changed anything other than the new axles.

On Valley Ranch Parkway at SH 99 (Grand Parkway) these bright flowers caught my eye. After taking the photos I took a short break under the overpass in the shade. The breeze felt great and I could’ve sat longer after eating the granola bar left from yesterday’s bike ride.

Another Strava result for a Local Legend on KPHS Sprint. I rarely see anyone biking on this segment but when I looked at the details at least 10 other bikers rode there.