Texas Bicycling News Digest March 19th 2018

Texbiker.net Posted on by

No Mountains Needed: Pace Bend Mountain Bike Race and Festival is March 24-25 in Spicewood

By Daniel Clifton | www.101highlandlakes.com


SPICEWOOD — The term “mountain biking” is deceiving in that mountains aren’t necessary. In fact, the Highland Lakes and Central Texas boast some incredible mountain biking opportunities even though our elevations pale in comparison to the Rockies and the Appalachians. …

European Tour of Texas 2018 Interview

www.wheelbrothers.com

What is the official name of your rally? European Tour of Texas Challenge
What is the date and start time of your rally? There are actually four different dates, and start times vary some due to this being a combination of four different events, but they are:
Germanfest Metric Century Bicycle Rally- 4/28 at 10a.m.

Bosque Tour de Norway- 5/19 at 8a.m.

Tour d’Italia Bike Rally- 6/16 at 8a.m.

and Tour de Paris- 7/21 at 8a.m. …

UPCOMING RIDES

Fort Worth Bicycling Association | www.fwbaclub.org

Palo Pinto Pajama Party – Spring Edition
Sat, March 24, 2018 9:00 AM 350 Briarwood Ln, Annetta, TX 76008
Alvarado Adventure
Sat, March 31, 2018 9:00 AM Alvarado High School, Alvarado, Tx
Bardwell or Bust
Sun, April 01, 2018 9:00 AM Venus, Tx
LBJ Grasslands
Sat, April 07, 2018 9:00 AM 400 N Miller St, Decatur, TX
Ride Across Johnson County
Sun, April 08, 2018 8:00 AM Commerce St, Burleson, Tx ( RR Tracks )
Peaster Pedal Backwards
Sat, April 14, 2018 9:00 AM Peaster Middle School
Italy Cruise
Sun, April 15, 2018 9:00 AM I35E and Dale Evans – Loves Travel Stop

https://www.instagram.com/p/BghQgNrhZJq/

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Last Day of Winter Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Started today’s bike ride at high noon under a beautiful sky and weather. It is easy to think tomorrow is the first day of spring and today is the last day of winter. Not Soon Enough!! It finally is arriving after cold weather and overcast skies. The weather for today’s bike ride: start 82 (28% humidity), partly cloudy, wind NW 13 mph. Finish 86 (19% humidity), few clouds, wind W 15 mph, gusts 23 mph. That wind is a killer. It wasn’t too bad biking north and south but any roads to the west and I had to bury my head and pedal hard to keep my speed at 14 to 15 mph. The ” start 82 (28% humidity), partly cloudy, wind NW 13 mph. Finish 86 (19% humidity), few clouds, wind W 15 mph, gusts 23 mph. The “New Caney – Tavola – Valley Ranch” route was mostly north and south and I managed to set a nice pace to Tavola. The very low humidity made it feel slightly cooler than the temperature indicated but I wore a light wardrobe: shorts and a short sleeve UC jersey.

No other cyclists along the route today.

With the 35.04 miles today I am getting close to my March goal of 585 miles with 537.8 miles so far. I should make my goal and makeup the remaining January shortfall of 20 miles.

The bike ride ended at 2:32 pm just before school traffic hits the road.

Tomorrow the temperature will be about 14 degrees cooler according to the forecast with a high of 72. I plan on biking and stopping at Dairy Queen for a free ice cream cone. Warmer clothes will be in order.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary

Bike Ride Summary

Texas Bicycling News Digest March 18th 2018

Texbiker.net Posted on by

3,000 cyclists descend on downtown for Tour de Houston

By Katherine Blunt | www.chron.com


Megan LeGrue wheeled her bike through downtown Houston early Sunday, nervous to test her stamina with a 20-mile round trip from City Hall.

The 38-year-old set off to keep a promise she made to herself in 2006 when a heart condition nearly shut down her circulatory system. A mechanical pump kept her blood flowing for 255 days, and when her heart was at last strong enough to beat on its own, she resolved to keep it that way with exercise and physical challenges. …

Sherman spending $4.5M on Pecan Grove athletic fields

By William C. Wadsack | www.heralddemocrat.com

Sherman is moving forward with plans for $4.5 million in construction on a new athletic complex west of Pecan Grove Park and $625,000 on other improvements to city parks and facilities.

The city will soon begin advertising for a construction manager-at-risk for the athletic complex work based on a design by park planners Dunkin, Sims, Stoffels, Inc. The Pecan Grove Athletic Complex will include four baseball and softball fields, a large soccer area that could incorporate multiple fields at once, and some neighborhood park features such as a splash pad, playground and pavilion. …

… The hiking and biking trails work includes $30,000 on a lighting project for the Fairview Park walking path, $15,000 on a new bridge for the trail at Baker Park and $40,000 on planning and signage for the city’s bicycle trail plan. Hutchinson said the city is also working on creating a Bike and Trail Master Plan. Hefton said city staff has addressed …

Bicycle Boulevard Improvement

cycling74 | bicycleaustin.info


So the Bicycle Boulevard has had its issues, (built on wrong street, impenetrable double white line turning out to be penetrable, boulevard ended up being parking for cars & delivery trucks, etc), well… here’s an actual improvement. …

Steam N Wheels

Pedal Pushers | roy-pedalpushers.blogspot.com

Abilene, Texas
March 17, 2018

Good News/Bad News. Some of us thought the ride started at 9 a.m. If it had, Christine and I would almost have been late. Couple of unnamed others also thought it was 9, some knew it was a 10 a.m. start. From the picture, can you tell who thought it was 9 and the one(s) who knew it was 10? …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

No Long Sleeves Required Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I didn’t ride the Tour de Houston but I did ride the “Oakhurst – Valley Ranch” route this afternoon starting at 12:29 pm and finishing at 2:25 pm. I wanted to ride far enough to get 200+ miles for the week and accomplished that by biking 26.28 miles. A summary of the week’s biking. (Click on the image to enlarge it)

Week Bike Ride Summary

The weather is starting to feel spring like. Today’s weather during the bike ride: start 80 (76% humidity) partly cloudy, finish 83 (71% humidity) mostly cloudy, wind calm. It was warm enough that I wore shorts and a short sleeve jersey, no long sleeves required. Sunscreen was applied. My pale arms will probably start to get tanned.

Nothing unusual or outstanding along the route except the azaleas continue to bloom with extraordinary color. Maybe all of the rain from Hurricane Harvey fired them up?

More good biking weather on Monday. Schools are back from spring break so traffic will be back. Also TXDot is starting work on the I-69/US59 bridge over the San Jacinto river and I am not sure how this will affect my biking. Time will tell since the repairs could last until August.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary (Click the image to enlarge and go to the live page)

Bike Ride Summary

Strava bike ride summary

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary March to Date (click to enlarge)

March to Date Summary