Watching the men’s and women’s Strade Bianche races this morning before leaving on my bike peaked my interest in gravel bikes. Searching the internet I found several with SRAM’s XPLR etap group. Now all I need to do is find some gravel to ride on nearby. That could be hard to do in the Houston area.

With the races over and the temperature getting up to 70 it was time for me to go on a bike ride. The Cervelo Caledonia mostly recovered from yesterday’s encounter with the 2″ deck screw. After getting a ride back home I replaced the rear tire and tube. The Cervelo was my bike for today’s bike ride. there was one problem though. The front brake rotor rubs on the brake pads. I tried spreading the pads and cylinders to put more space and that helped some. The rotor didn’t rub quite as much.

It was slightly chilly so I wore shorts, a long sleeve jersey, and a wind jacket. I rolled out at 11:20 AM on my Cervelo bike. Wanting to make up some of the lost miles from yesterday’s cut short ride I chose a route I didn’t think I had done before, Atascocita – Spanish Cove – Walden, thinking it would be around 35 to 36 miles. When I finished the ride at 2:22 PM I looked at Strava and was surprised to see two other rides came up as matches, October 29, 2022 and August 20, 2022. I guess this route isn’t a new one. It did cover roads I ride on other routes but I thought this combination would be new. I changed the route names on those other rides to match today.

Starting this late on Saturday I didn’t expect to see any cyclists but three passed me going the opposite direction in Atascocita on the way to FM 1960.

Weather conditions: start 70 degrees, 49% humidity, dew point 50, fair, wind variable 6 mph; finish 77 degrees, 39% humidity, dew point 50, fair, wind E 4 mph. The calmed down a lot from yesterday.

As the ride progressed the front brake started squealing whenever I applied the brake. So I decided to stop at Kingwood Bicycles on the way back to have them look at it. I did that and the wheels turns freely like it used to and the brake doesn’t squeal.

Data from the AXS.SRAM ride report: 33 rear derailleur shifts, used the 35×15 gears 9.6 miles, the 35×13 gears 22.1 miles out of a total 35.8 miles.

I reclaimed the Strava Local Legend on The Library Sprint today.