I knew it would be a windy ride I just didn’t know to what extent. Starting at 11:15 AM allowed the temperature to get above 70 and the windy to get blowing. By the time I finished biking on my “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route at 1:54 PM I enjoyed a strong tailwind and a treacherous Lake Houston westbound crossing. I rode my Canyon Endurace bike 33.28 miles. The first 20 miles mostly enjoyed the tailwind, the last 13 I fought the headwind, literally. 15 times I rode this route in 2021 but none of the previous 14 had wind like this.

Biking to FM 2100 was fairly easy with the tailwind. Riding east over Lake Houston my Bolt computer showed over 19 mph and I wasn’t pedaling. If you were to look at my power chart starting around 16.2 miles until about 18 miles versus my speed the difference would be striking. This was when I was over Lake Houston with the wind pushing me. This came to an abrupt end once I was off the causeway when a big gust hit me from the left almost pushing me into the grass. I slowed to regain control and straighten the Canyon. From there to FM 2100 the wind helped me in a nice way.

Making the left turn at FM 2100 and Old Atascocita Road changed the wind to a strong gusty headwind. I stayed to the left on the unopened southbound lanes to get some wind break effect from the trees but when they weren’t there the wind got a good shot at me. Crossing the railroad tracks and onto FM 1960 the ride headed west. I thought the wind would be strong but thanks to the trees along the right side of the road it wasn’t too bad. Approaching the Houston Fire Station I felt the wind increase as the trees and buildings moved back from the road. Not too bad so far. I had a false sense of the wind not being worse than that. Riding onto the causeway the wind gusts increased dramatically especially where the water goes under the road. This gave the wind free rein to blow through. I shifted up a gear on the rear cassette because it was hard to pedal. Unlike the 19 mph without pedaling going east about the best I managed riding west was 9 to 10 mph. Originally I thought I would stop out in the middle of the crossing to shot some video but the strong gusts canceled that. The wind was so strong I remembered biking in Harlingen February 16th, 2008, when the wind blew at 50 mph with 60+ mph gusts. It was so strong I got off the bike and walked. I was thinking today I might need to walk but I pedaled across the lake. At Atascocita Shores Drive I waited for a few minutes to let my legs recover.

On the west side of the lake I rode on Atascocita Shores Drive sometimes getting hit by the wind when the houses and trees opened. The wind blew hard to the ride finish but not like riding over Lake Houston. Back in Kingwood the trees, buildings, and houses slowed the wind some.