Same Goal, Different Result From Last Two Bike Rides
After reading the weather forecast from Space City Weather it looked like my goal for today’s bike ride was the same as yesterday, get finished before the rain. That goal didn’t happen though. Riding southeast on FM 1314 approaching River Walk Drive I could see the rain was falling at Sorters Road. The wind was gusting, the temperature cooled, and I tried to speed up to find cover at Pat’s Donuts shopping center. As I made the turn into the parking lot it was raining lightly but I made it to the porch before the heavier rain arrived. I waited about 17 minutes for the rain to slow to sprinkling to leave but the road was wet and the spray from passing traffic almost reached where I was riding. The streets remained wet until Old Sorters Road, not quite as wet biking through Briar Tree and mostly dry in Oakhurst. Back in Kingwood the streets showed no sign of rain and my home weather station recorded no rain. That was a close call. After the ride I washed the Cervelo and went inside while it dried. I finished the ride at 12:02 PM, about 15 minutes later than I expected due to the rain delay.
All of this happened while I rode the New Caney – Gene Campbell Blvd route starting at 8:42 AM. The bike was my Cervelo Caledonia. The last time I rode this route was May 5th, 2023. That ride was on my Lynskey Helix bike going 39.03 miles. I looked at the map for that ride earlier and made a few small changes or today’s ride. The first 2 miles was different, the streets to US59 was different but after that the rest of the route was the same. The May 5th ride was 39.03 miles long and today I rode 38.89 miles, pretty close considering the changes.
My legs felt good today. I built up my overall average speed to 14.7 mph and was able to maintain that until the strong winds arrived on FM 1314 with the rain. The wind let up when the rain moved away. I rode slower on FM 1314 because of the spray from the traffic.
Weather: Start 78 degrees, 95% humidity, dew point 76.4, partly cloudy, wind E 5 mph; rain at Sorters Road; Finish 81 degrees, 78% humidity, dew point 73.2, overcast, wind S 6 mph. The temperature was well below the expected level thanks to the rain. I felt chilled when the wind picked up with the approaching rain.