After four days of Zwift rides I was back on my Cervelo Caledonia and the roads. The first full day of spring was overcast and windy but warm enough for me to ride outside. As I thought about potential routes to ride I remembered the Atascocita South – Walden – Huffman one. I was surprised that my last ride on this route was October 6, 2022 when I looked in SportTracks. I don’t know why it has taken this long to ride it again. I thought about riding it in reverse but since it had been several months I decided to ride in the usual direction. The average distance for the route is just over 35 miles so I figured today would be that long.

Before starting today’s ride I watched stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya race in Spain. They climbed a number of mountains which I would not b doing. My big obstacle would the very strong south wind. As I normally do before starting a ride I checked the weather and the strong wind stood out quickly. From the south at 20 mph with 32 mile gusts meant the south and east route I chose would be into that wind until around 21 miles. My legs would get a workout.

After getting dressed and getting the final things in order I decided to pump up the tires on the Cervelo. I use a thread on air chuck on the Lezyne floor pump. I didn’t thread the chuck on properly and when I removed it to try again the Presta valve core came out deflating the front tire rapidly. I had to use pliers to get the valve core out of the chuck and then thread it back into the valve. Then both tires aired up with no problems.

Walking out the back door I didn’t that the pest service man was at the front door until I was going down the driveway. I had to turn around and go back into the house to get his check. As I unlocked the door the wind knocked the Cervelo over. With over 6500 miles on the Cervelo I managed to not have it fall over until the last 2 weeks. It fell over at the Gator Ride and today.

With all of that taken care of I rolled away on the ride at 12:08 PM, later than i wanted. But the temperature had warmed up to 70 while I was delayed. I almost wore a heavier long sleeve jersey with the wind jacket but I changed my mind and grabbed a regular long sleeve jersey instead. Even with the strong wind I was comfortable except for the first 10 minutes until I warmed up. Weather for the bike ride: start 70 degrees, 74% humidity, dew point 62, overcast, wind S 20 mph gusts 32 mph; finish 72 degrees, 74% humidity, dew point 63, overcast, wind S 21 mph gusts 30 mph.

Apparently during my absence of not riding this route in Walden several stretches of bike trails have been completed. I rode on one section today, around mile 14 on the map. Next time I will ride on more.

On the way back to Kingwood riding west over Lake Houston the wind pushed the Cervelo around with the gusts. My firm grip kept me on track but it was hard. I was still able to keep my speed at 17 to 18 mph so I got across the lake at a good pace. On the west side I turned north and the wind was less of a problem. I finished the ride at 2:53 PM with a sporadic mist coming down speckling the Bolt’s screen.