Texas Bicycling News August 28th 2016

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Woman hit by SUV while riding a bike on the East Side Sunday morning

By Imani McGarrell

www.mysanantonio.com


A woman was struck by an SUV while riding her bicycle on the 1400 block of N. Hackberry Street around 4 a.m. Sunday.
According to officers at the scene, the female driver of a Ford SUV was northbound on Hackberry when she hit the bike …

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MTB Bike Trail Ride Washed Out

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My goal was to ride 16 miles on the Kingwood greenbelt trails to put my August miles over 700 to help make the next three days not so demanding to reach my goal. So much for that plan. I started late (3:42) because I watched the replay of stage 9 of the Vuelta a Espana. I checked the weather radar and didn’t see any rain nearby so I set off. The ride was going great but as I rode out of Woodridge Forest I could see the eastern sky getting darker than overcast sky overhead. I thought it would blow by or not be a threat and continued riding. As I exited the trails onto Crystal Springs Drive to make my way across Woodland Hills Drive and the trail the wind gusts came but I was still optimistic that the rain wasn’t coming. Once I was on the trail east of Woodland Hills Drive it started to sprinkle but under the tree cover it wasn’t that bad. Then I came out from under the hevy tree cover and the wind and rain started coming down hard. The nearest cover was the underpass beneath Kingwood Drive but that was a mile or more away. I picked up my speed which wasn’t much faster since I was on my MTB. I made it across the first bridge and came around a corner to see a lady with an umbrella and a very, very large dog in the middle of the trail. She didn’t see me at first because she had the umbrella tipped down but as I got closer she noticed me and moved to the side of the trail and tugged at the leash to move the dog with her. He wasn’t too interested in that and looked like he wanted to come towards me but she talked to the dog and yanked the leash and I rode by without any contact. The second bridge was ahead and I rode quickly over it and turned left about 200 yards from the dry cover under Kingwood Drive. Because Kingwood Drive is 4 lanes, two in each direction, with a center greenway there are two sections. The first one was collecting water so I rode to the second one where another biker was standing. As I pulled in he got on his bike and rode where I came from telling me it was drier where I was headed. Looking at the rain I decided I would stopped and wait for the rain to slow down or stop. My Elemnt computer showed 9.0 miles at this point. As I waited I decided the 16 mile goal wasn’t going to happen today and adjusted my route. I ended up riding 13.57 miles, putting my August total at 699 miles. This was close enough.

This is the first time that I can remember riding the trails in the rain. I biked when the trails were wet but not while it was raining. I waited at the underpass for about 10 minutes and then got back on my MTB to finish the ride. I didn’t take the shortest route home so I could add a few more miles since I was already soaked. I finished the ride at 5:17 and leaned my bike against the trash can to hose it down. Then I found the hose nozzle was broke and added some water to my situation as I unscrewed it from the hose. With the bike washed down I went inside to dry off. Earlier i saw a picture from Wichita Falls with the sun shining and wished that was here. Since the rain arrived last week it doesn’t want to leave.

More rain in the forecast for tomorrow but I am hopeful I can ride.

I biked 206 miles this week. Year to date I am at 5,553 miles.

I checked my rank at the National Bike Challenge: 961 as of earlier today.

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Texas Bicycling News August 27th 2016

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This weekend, it’s all about bikes

by Lynn Walker

www.timesrecordnews.com


This is the weekend. The Big Bike Weekend.
I have to admit I haven’t been up close and personal with a bicycle in about sixty years. My good ol’ black Schwinn was pretty plain Jane compared to what’s on the road nowadays. Next year should be a special one for cycling enthusiasts. It will mark the 200th birthday of the bike. Although the exact origins of bikes are a little murky, the credit usually goes to Baron Karl von Drais, of Baden, in what is now Germany. …

Thumper is in pretty bad shape

by Kyle

www.bikemojo.com

Thumper really needs some organized work. Before the recent rains I cut up 25+ fallen trees, but then as of yesterday there are another 15-20 big trees on the trail again, with one or two maybe too big to get with a hand saw.
Plus there are smaller branches everywhere, the trail is overgrown, the benched trail next to the creek has been washed away, and the hordes of feral pigs have started rooting up the actual tread in places so it’s not obvious where it leads.
Anyway, all this combined with the new misleading arrow signs means that any newbies trying to pre-ride for the EB would be pretty screwed. I’ll be out there cutting up more fallen trees at some point, but is there anyone with a grand strategic plan for this place? …

Bike ride helps men talk about prostate health

by Jenni Lee

www.kvue.com

AUSTIN – More than 260 bikers took part in the 1400Miles Community Bike Ride in Dripping Springs on Saturday.
The 20, 40 or 60 mile courses are a precursor to the Big Ride in September where bikers will ride 1,400 miles in 14 days to Denver.
It is the fourth year for the group, 1400Miles, to put on the event. All to raise awareness and …

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Crossing Routes With Other Riders Bike Ride

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Riding the “Atascocita South – Walden – Huffman” route today I saw four other bikers, two of them twice. I thought my late start (11:56) would mean the other bikers would already be finished. I rode 33.54 miles averaging 14.1 mph. This week the weather has moderated from the upper 90’s to 100 degrees of two weeks ago. It was in the mid 80’s most of the ride but that didn’t keep me from sweating heavily. The overcast sky kept the heat down as well. The wind from the NNE at 9 mph made the ride to Huffman tough and the ride home from there much easier.

The rest stop at the Huffman Chevron came at 21.7 miles into the ride arriving at 1:36.

While I was resting at the station the two bikers I saw earlier in Kingwood Greens pulled into the station and we chatted. At our first meeting I didn’t know they were behind me and I made a turn in front of them onto a side street. I rolled out of the station about 2:10 to head back to Kingwood. I finished the ride at 2:59.

So far I biked 685 miles in August toward my 800 mile goal. Earlier I thought reaching my goal would be hard but now I think I might get there.

Rain chances increase tomorrow (Sunday). I may get rained out.

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