Sometimes the route I ride comes to me at unusual times and places. Today’s route popped into my mind as I was going to bed last night and this morning to I checked SportTracks to see the last time I rode it, May 6th, 2020. I wanted a route over 40 miles for a couple of reasons, to make up for not biking yesterday and to prep for biking the 100km at the HH100 in a couple of weeks. The video details why I didn’t ride yesterday.

I started biking at 9:01 AM on my Cervelo Caledonia bike following my “Kingwood – East River Dr – Kingwood” route to the north. After making my way through Kingwood and Woodridge Forest to the US59 northbound frontage road I zigzagged north along US59 north of Splendora to the East River Road underpass where I turned back to the south. Checking SportTracks again I think this is the farthermost north I biked this year from Kingwood. Today’s activity is a mile longer, 47.22 versus 46.09 miles, than the May 6th, 2020 ride because I added two streets in Elm Grove Village in Kingwood on the way to US59. Before getting to Splendora I planned to go over the railroad tracks to the road east of the tracks to Splendora but a train was blocking the crossing. I got a better view of the road construction at SH 242 on the way to Splendora and avoided construction barriers riding south before SH 242 biking on a road the passes Big River amusement park that wasn’t open in 2020. At SH 242 I was able to see the progress on the new lanes and the closure of the old ones. There is no shoulder on the new lanes so I will not be biking there for awhile.

Single digit wind speed meant the headwind and tailwind weren’t much hindrance or help. Sometimes the wind felt like it was coming from my side on the way to East River Drive though the direction was supposed to be from the SE. On the way back to Kingwood the headwind challenged me at times, mostly when combined with a small climb. The temperature ranged from 83 at the start to 92 when I finished at 12:51 PM. At the end my CamelBak was almost empty and the water was no longer cool. Humidity was 54% when I completed the ride. Weather summary: start 83 (humidity 82%, dew point 77), mostly cloudy, wind SE 7 mph; finish 92 (humidity 54%, dew point 73), mostly cloudy, wind SE 7 mph.

I stopped at the TX 99 underpass on Valley Ranch Parkway for about 10 minutes to rest and eat 2 granola bars. In the shade the breeze felt cooling and I had to force myself to get back on the Cervelo. As I got ready to leave I took these photos. The tree trunk was not real.

According to the AXS.SRAM.com ride report I was active changing the RD 31 times during the ride. I rode 2:34:47 (36.9 miles) using the 35×13 gears out of a total moving time of 3:45:03. A number of the RD shifts were on the southbound portion when I went uphill into the wind.

On one of the extra streets in Elm Grove Village I set a PR on Kris Spraggins Memorial Route (2:38) according to Strava. Apparently I’m not the only person biking on that segment.