Making up for not riding on Tuesday was the theme for today’s bike ride. Wanting to ride north I checked SportTracks for my recent rides into Roman Forest to see if they were 40+ miles. The last time I rode there was September 5th, 2022, for 44.86 miles. That is above the typical distance for this route of 41 to 42 miles but the number I wanted to get close to. That ride was an outlier. I chose that route but was not going to ride the same exact roads today thinking I would bike 42 miles.

The sunshine was gone leaving an overcast sky as I rolled away at 10:34 AM on my Cervelo Caledonia bike to bike the New Caney – Roman Forest – Valley Ranch route. I decided to dress lighter than yesterday with shorts, arm sleeve and a short sleeve jersey. Without the sun it was a little chilly until I warmed up after about 15 minutes of riding.

Nothing different as far as streets riding north through Kingwood and Woodridge Forest to the US59 frontage road. I headed north crossing FM 1314, making a stop at the cemetery to visit my wife’s grave where I felt the first patch of light rain. This didn’t deter me from continuing hoping the mist would move away or I would ride out of it. Back on the frontage road I made the right turn onto the TX 99 service road to Loop 494. More mist patches there as well. On Loop 494 the mist left encouraging me to keep biking. At Payne Road I saw the big beams for the new bridge over Caney Creek parked on the road, maybe that bridge will open yet. It was damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The detour back to the frontage road to get to Tavola where I went over the new railroad crossing. Through Tavola I made the turn onto Roman Forest Blvd. to begin the loop into Roman Forest. I rode the normal streets I take until the Appian Way and Galaxy Blvd. intersection. I don’t remember ever biking north on Galaxy Blvd. to Roman Forest Blvd. so I went that direction. It was a smooth road lined with trees and no driveways. A surprise happened at Roman Forest Blvd., the old road was resurfaced with smooth asphalt. The rough road and potholes were gone. A nice ride from there to Appian Way where the new asphalt ended but the road was still nice. Back to US59 and the familiar roads back to Kingwood. West of US59 I didn’t run into any patches of light rain and finished the ride at 1:52 PM. The patches of mist were all I encountered thankfully.

Two Strava medals with the second overlaying on this 2nd fastest time on Out of Roman Forest (14:27).

The week mileage stands at 124.93 and the month at 558.51 (80% of my 700 mile goal).

Weather conditions: Start 76 degrees, 77% humidity, dew point 69, overcast, wind SE 14 mph; Finish 75 degrees, 78% humidity, dew point 68, overcast, wind S 13 mph. The wind wasn’t too demanding on the way back to Kingwood though I would’ve preferred a tailwind. I used the 35×13 gears for 2:15:24 (33 miles) out of a total moving time of 3:07:12 according to my AXS.SRAM.com ride report.