Texas Biking News April 4th 2020

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San Antonio women biking 24 hours nonstop for charity

Author: Jordan Foster | www.kens5.com

Staying home isn’t stopping this Texas athlete from helping out her neighbors.

SAN ANTONIO — Jenna Lou is about to go on a ride, and once she starts, she won’t be stopping until 24 hours have passed.

“It’ll be interesting,” Lou said.

The athletic feat of endurance is all for charity.

“It’s kind of hard for us to do a lot right now due to social distancing orders, so this is just our way of giving back,” Lou said.

She wanted to help somehow, so she …

My NEW MTB Van | VAN TOUR | MTB Van Life | Mountain Bike Van Conversion | Van Life Goals

MTBdropIN | www.youtube.com

Hey friends, I think it’s funny that every mtb channel is going all in on the MTB Van dream build, in hopes of accelerating views (at least thats my educated opinion lol). I thought, I wanted to try and get a piece of the action myself. I hope you guys enjoy the humor and my attempts to become part of #vanlife and happy April, you fools!!

Preliminary designs for Phase 2 of Atascocita Hike & Bike Trail revealed

By Kelly Schafler | communityimpact.com

Harris County Precinct 2 is designing Phase 2 of the Atascocita Hike & Bike Trail. The concrete trail will connect to Phase 1 of the trail, which was completed last June and runs from West Lake Houston Parkway to Kings Park Way. The preliminary design for Phase 2 has the trail moving south down West Lake Houston Parkway to just south of Atascocita Middle School.

Precinct 2 officials said Phase 2 should go to bid in late 2020. The cost for Phase 2 is not yet available. …

2020 LIFETIME Driveway Series on Zwift

Presented by Holland Racing | www.bikereg.com

Lifetime Driveway Series p/b The Meteor continues on Zwift for the time being! A, B, and C races start together at 6:30PM CST this Thursday. Races will continue every Thursday thru May 7. Registration is FREE and open to all. You will however need to have a paid Zwift account.

As a reminder, these races are FREE and just for fun. These races are not official. They count for nothing. They are merely to serve as a distraction while we all go through the craziness of the Covid19 pandemic. They are here to help those of you who are on Zwift connect, albeit virtually.

SCHEDULE – Thursdays thru May at 6:30PM:

A Race – Brad Houston Law P1/2/3 presented by Ueckert Dentistry

B Race – Ervin Law Firm-Criminal Defense Cat 3/4

C Race – Rothe Training Cat 4/5

GETTING STARTED ON ZWIFT: https://zwift.com/video/how-to-cycling

REGISTRATION LINK: www.drivewayseries.com/register-zwift

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

A Different Way to Zwift

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Up to now my Zwifting consisted of participating in group events. After watching a YouTube video from GPLama about Zwift adding another guest world I decided to try riding a route rather than a group event.

The three worlds available to choose from: Watopia, NYC, Richmond. Within each world several routes showed with a very brief description of miles, elevation gain, and an animated route map. Looking through them I wanted to find a route less than 20 miles with elevation gain under 1000 feet because I am a flatlander. Richmond’s routes either fell short in distance or the climb was too much. Same for NYC. The most routes are in Watopia and some of them are whoppers in both distance and/or climbing. One of those: Four Horsemen traveling 55.8 miles climbing 6916 feet. I settled on the Watopia Road to Ruins route with 893 feet of climbing and 18.7 miles.

Not knowing how many Zwifters would be in Watopia I wondered if how crowded or vacant the ride would be. It wasn’t vacant. As I got ready to start in the lower right corner +14800 more Zwifters showed. During the ride I was never far from other people Zwifting, almost all cyclists with a few runners. One time I saw a runner dart across the road as cyclist headed towards him. They narrowly missed each other.

Some things I liked about Zwifting this way:

  • starting when I want to,
  • choosing the route,
  • the ability to stop when I wanted without feeling like I gave up,
  • not getting dropped and being alone,
  • not everyone wore the same jersey unlike group rides.

Some confusing things:

  • miles to finish count down missing,
  • the profile misled me, showing climbs that I didn’t ride because the route turned,
  • messages from other people that I think were in group rides in Watopia,
  • the Hilly Loop KOM countdown occupied the left side of the screen when the route doesn’t go that way to the completion,
  • the PR counter for the Jungle Loop appeared and then disappeared after 16+ minutes leaving me wonder what happened.

Overall I think choosing a route offered a different experience and I would do it again. However, my Zwift subscription will expire April 12the when I switch road biking exclusively, leaving a few days to try another one. I did make a big dent in reaching my 30 mile goal for April Zwifting with the 18.65 mile ride.

The reason I road Zwift today was the cool (53 degrees) and rainy weather outside. Sunday the sun returns and 78 degrees may be the high.

Links to my Strava activity page and SportTracks activity page.

  • 4-4-2020 Strava Zwift Bike Ride Summary-1
  • 4-4-2020 Strava Zwift Bike Ride Summary-2

Texas Biking April 3rd 2020

Texbiker.net Posted on by

One-two economic punch: Loss of Lamar County events, business will challenge local governments financially

By Jennifer Bussey and Klark Byrd | theparisnews.com

Lamar County’s economy is taking some bruising blows as some of the largest tourism events of the year are falling victim to the coronavirus pandemic.

One such event, the Archery Shooters Association’s Southwest Shootout, was canceled before Gov. Greg Abbott extended an executive order this week to enforce gathering limitations through May 4. The event is known to bring in more than …

… And another weekend-long event, the Paris Balloon and Music Festival, has been grounded with board members postponing the fifth festival until 2021. While the festival wasn’t scheduled to happen until the weekend of July 18, coinciding with the Tour de Paris Bicycle Rally, organizers said they cannot meet under the guidelines set by federal, state and local officials to slow the spread of Covid-19. …

Stay Off Wet Trails!

by Ethan Fischer | centexmtb.com

Central Texas MTB With a long, wet week ahead of us here in Central Texas, I thought it would be a good idea to write a quick post to explain to those who are new to the sport and those who maybe don’t fully understand why riding wet trails is so bad, why exactly it is best to stay off the trails for a while.

Before you read the rest of this, watch this hilarious but also very education video about why it is important to stay off the trails when they’re wet. …

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Bike Ride To Beat Closing Time

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I managed to start today’s bike ride at 10:53 AM on the “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route. The weather warmed up enough to leave the jacket at home. My wardrobe today: shorts, long sleeve jersey (a Pearl Izumi with extra long sleeves), and University of Cincinnati short sleeve jersey. I rode 36.56 miles boosting my April total to 104.89 miles, 17% of the way to my 600 mile goal.

Weather while I biked the roads of Montgomery County: start 77 (77% humidity, 69.6 dew point), overcast, wind SE 10 mph. Finish 81 (67% humidity, 69.5 dew point), overcast, wind SE 13 mph gusts 20 mph. The 20 mph gusts worked me over while riding SE on FM 1314. Up to that point the wind had not been much of a problem either as tailwind or blocked by trees. With the headwind I expected my average speed to drop from 14.5 mph pretty quickly but I overcame the headwind to keep it there until I stopped at Pat’s Donuts on FM 1314 for an apple fritter.

I got to Pat’s about 10 minutes before closing time. With the apple fritter and a cup of ice I walked to the front of the store to eat and drink. Sometimes when I get there just before closing they put 2 fritters in the bag for the price of one but not today. That is probably better for me, not getting a sugar and dough overload.

Today another new pair of Pearl Izumi Black Elite Gel Gloves moved into service replacing a well used pair. I like these gloves for the gel pads and synthetic leather. Sizing is good and I usually find them on sale.

  • 4-3-2020 New Pearl Izumi Elite Gel Gloves Black-1
  • 4-3-2020 New Pearl Izumi Elite Gel Gloves Black-2
  • 4-3-2020 New Pearl Izumi Elite Gel Gloves Black-3

The sound in the video is muffled because I moved the GoPro from my helmet to under the Bolt computer in front of the handlebars. I will go back to the helmet mount but I ordered a USB-C lapel microphone to try. Putting the camera out front reduces the weight on the helmet and my neck muscles. For some reason two clips recorded upside down but I fixed them in editing.

4-3-2020 SportTracks Bike Ride Summary