Texas Bicycling News Digest March 26th 2016

Texbiker.net Posted on by

2016 Texas Team Preview : Rock Riders Cycling

texasbikeracing.com


With a hat tip to Dallas’ most beloved fitness trail, Rock Riders Cycling participates in competitive races, charity rides, and community events to promote a healthy lifestyle through cycling in North Texas. Founded last year by four friends and cycling enthusiasts, the team includes racers and recreational riders alike.
“We are a group of guys who like racing, riding bikes, and sharing life together,” Teal Carlock, racer and …

Thief returns stolen racing bike thanks to Fox 4 photojournalist

www.fox4news.com

A University of North Texas student was sure she’d have to push back her next bike race after her expensive ride was stolen, but she had it returned today, thanks to an observant Fox 4 crew member.
Surveillance cameras at Denton’s West Oak Coffee, where 21-year-old Taylor Rector works, give a look at what happened. The video shows a tall, skinny man with long, stringy hair grab the bike, Thursday night, and leave. …

Tom Goes West 2016

By Thomas King www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 26 – Shepherd to Anderson, TX: From Big Thicket to Big Sky
Friday March 25, 2016, 68 miles (109 km) – Total so far: 1,249 miles (2,010 km)
16% through the 1070 miles of Texas. Keep pedaling. We drove up to Shepherd to start my ride. The day started cool at 51 degrees and warmed quickly under the bright sun and clear sky. This morning a guy was photographing me as I rode by and he said “smile Tom” and it was Ari who I met the other day cycling with his sister Alex. He went to see the orthopedic doctor who recommended he quit the ride to San Diego but option 2 was to take a week off. So he rented a car and is following his sister and then will pick up the riding again. He had news of other riders and said there are more cross country riders he’s met in …

Escaping Winter : The Other Half of the Southern Tier

By Zandra Bainas and Steve Marsh www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 21 – Van Horn to Lawrence E Woods Picnic Site: Travelling With Denny
Tuesday March 15, 2016, 111 km (69 miles) – Total so far: 1,845 km (1,146 miles)
We agreed to meet Denny at 8 am, not realizing sunrise wasn’t until 8:10 am now that we are in a new time zone. We still feel pretty tired as we got to bed at midnight and it is also unappealingly cold outside.
We are still packing up when Denny comes by in the dusk-like morning light, and we quickly stop him from rolling his bike over the grass to prevent him picking up a load of thorns. When ready, we roll out for the grocery store, then breakfast, then a pharmacy in that order. The grocery is Porters ( chain store). We successfully pick up real cheese, bananas, and chocolate covered cookies here. One of the clerks provides a recommendation and directions to Lizy’s Taquiera’s, which requires us to work our way under the interstate and through a more residential neighbourhood. Breakfast here was …

Day 22 – Lawrence E Woods Picnic Site to Alpine: Visiting the McDonald Observatory
Wednesday March 16, 2016, 86 km (53 miles) – Total so far: 1,931 km (1,200 miles)
We wake up and this morning and only start moving after the pre dawn light has lit up the tent. The sun won’t rise over the mountains until after breakfast is started (oatmeal and tea). Once the sun is out, it is certainly nice to stand in the light and absorb the heat. It was cold enough last night that some left over tea froze in a cup on the picnic table. Funny, because we found it very warm under the covers with only the winter sleeping bag in use this time. It was however really really damp, probably because the accumulated moisture just condensed in the tent as it hit the colder air just above our sleeping bag.
When we do head out, all three of us complain about having tired legs which is ironic because we have some more steep climbing to do yet before we reach the observatory. It is a beautiful morning, but it takes us 2 hours or so to reach the Observatory which is only 10 miles away. We talked with visitor reception at 11:05 am…just in time for the 11:15 tour of the observatory. Luckily there is a …

Day 23 – Rest Day in Alpine: Happy St. Patrick’s Day to Y’All
Thursday March 17, 2016
Today turned out to be a real day of rest.
Our cycling companion of the last two days, Denny, showed true hard core cycling spirit by actually heading out into the morning towards Marathon & Sanderson. We, being younger and exhausted, declared we needed at least one recovery day, and wished him a great trip onwards and downhill to Florida.
We originally thought that today we would take two rest days, rent a car, and go to Big Bend National Park for an overnight stay. Unfortunately, the rental car company in Alpine had no cars available, so we ditched the Big Bend plan for a single rest day. During the next twelve hours, we moved the tent to a real site. made and ate breakfast, did laundry, had lunch, went grocery shopping, found a drugstore, and ate much of our shopping efforts for supper.
Just before heading off for a shower, Zandra met Fran who is …

Day 24 – Alpine to Sanderson: a long but lovely day
Friday March 18, 2016, 148 km (92 miles) – Total so far: 2,079 km (1,292 miles)
OK, Here starts a bit of a gap with writing…Zandra developed a cough today, which became a head cold, which stopped the writing and upped the sleeping 😉 Not that she needed much incentive to do that! Now it’s, hmm, 8 days later, so catching up is a bit on the interesting side (what do you really remember from eight days ago)? —-
The Bakers Dozen Donuts in Alpine is actually open as we cycle into Alpine this morning on the way to Sanderson. We manage to get as far as across the road, before we turn around and go back into the bakery in search of calories. A sausage roll for Zandra and a cinnamon roll for Steve later, we leave the bakery fortified to now search out a real breakfast along the route out of town. Steve dashes on ahead to see if the Mexican restaurant ‘we had originally tried for two nights ago is open for breakfast – unfortunately not. As Zandra catches up, Steve then dashes off in another …

Where are we now
Monday February 29, 2016, 98 km (61 miles) – Total so far: 508 km (315 miles)
Gads! How do people keep their journals up to date ? Well it looks like it is almost a lost cause for us to keep our’s up todate but to let folks know where we are there is this page until we actually get the time to update the journal page for that day.
Day 2 – To Live Oak Springs (up the big climb into the second large valley after Pine Valley)
Day 3 – To El Centro. We are now in the green Oasis in the deser below sea level
Day 4 – To Glamis – wild camp just outside the Dunes park
Day 5 – To Blythe, California
Day 6 – To Hope Arizona
Day 7 – To Wickenburg Arizona
Day 8 – To Phoenix Arizona
Day 9 – rest day in Phoenix (3 March)
Day 10 – To Superior, Arizona
Day 11 – To Apache Gold Casino to camp at their RV park
Day 12 – To Safford, Arizona
Day 13 – To Coal Creek USFS campground, Arizona
Day 14 – To Silver City, New Mexico
Day 15 – Rest day in Silver City, New Mexico
Day 16 – To Kingston USFS Campground via the Santa Rita Alternate route, New Mexico
Day 17 – To Las Cruces, New Mexico
Day 18 – To El Paso, Texas …

Southern Tier Biking Adventures

By Nate Beiler www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 32: Alpine to McDonald Observatory
Monday March 21, 2016, 45 miles (72 km) – Total so far: 2,017 miles (3,246 km)
We’ve had quite the experience now in Alpine. Even though practically everything we wanted there had been closed, we somehow still managed to get through. This morning we drove the car back to the dealer from Big Bend, said goodbye to the nice people who opened up for us the other day, and switched back to a currently more familiar method of transport: biking along at 10 or so mph. Before leaving town we stopped at a subway for lunch. While at the restaurant, the owner of the only bike shop in town (which was supposed to be closed today) happened to stop by, and seeing us, inquired if we …

Southern Tier eastward 2016

By Luba Agranovich www.crazyguyonabike.com

Luba: more riders
Saturday March 26, 2016, 34 miles (54 km) – Total so far: 1,048 miles (1,687 km)
Had a short day again in order to save our energy for tomorrow. The road was, like yesterday, quite beautiful and pleasant. Even 8 miles on I-10 with wide and smooth shoulders were great. On an access road met a couple, Bobbie and Glen, who are riding east to west. They started from St. Petersburg FL on February 1st and will turn off the Southern Tier after hitting the mountains and will continue on to Washington state. We are staying in the Desert Inn motel because it’s the closest to TX 90 where we’ll be riding tomorrow. The motel is quiote inexpensive but is very nice and clean. …

An Englishman in America

By Rob Lee www.crazyguyonabike.com

Mar 26: To Del Rio
Saturday March 26, 2016, 84 miles (135 km) – Total so far: 2,287 miles (3,681 km)
I amazed myself this morning by leaving the campsite before 8 AM. Which meant that the big family group camping next to me probably weren’t that happy with me clattering around before 6 AM…
It was a grey morning, although at least this meant that it hadn’t been cold overnight. It did however mean that nothing was looking particularly photogenic and so I didn’t attempt any photography until lunchtime!
The route initially went South along the Nueces River, before cutting West towards Brackettville. The cycling was …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Wildflowers Along SR242 Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

I needed 58 miles to reach my March goal of 631 miles before I started today’s ride. I decided not to ride the Clay Walker Band Against MS ride because it was too cold (47 degrees) and I plan on riding the Ride Like An Eagle bike ride on April 2nd which covers most of the same route. Maybe by April 2nd it will warm up some.

The sky was less blue than yesterday and the temperature added a few degrees but not as much as I prefer. When I start riding at 12:34 it was 72 degrees at my home weather station. The wind was from the SE at 8 mph which caused me to wear a short sleeve jersey over a long sleeve jersey. This was okay but whenever I rode into the wind or in the shade it was a little chilly even after I warmed up.

Riding the “SR242 – FM1314” route for the first time this year I made a couple of changes: shortened the route by about 2 miles before leaving Kingwood and stayed on the US59 northbound service road all the way to SR242. In the past this route is around 47 miles long but today it ended up at 44.5 miles. Last Saturday while driving to the Grand Parkway Bike Ride I saw the closed lane on the service road before Community Drive was open. This meant I could stay on the service road without the lanes coming to one in front of the Rosewood Funeral Home. The new service road now has a little hill at Community Drive to meet the Grand Parkway access roads. Traffic was accommodating and there was plenty of room. Going to the north the wind was behind me and helped get my average speed up to 15+ mph by the time I reached SR242. West bound on SR242 I improved the average speed to 16.0 mph even though I stopped to take these pictures.

The Indian Paintbrush wildflowers are blooming almost the entire distance from US59 to FM1314. I didn’t see any Bluebonnets though. Just before I got to FM1485 another biker was riding the opposite direction in a tight aero tuck. We waved to each other.

Turning left onto FM1314 for the ride back to Porter put the wind at my left front quarter and my effort increased. I managed to improve my average speed despite the wind to 16.2 mph until I stopped at the Cumberland Shell for a break. I needed some Powerade and ate a couple of granola bars to fuel the ride back home from there. The Edge 520 screen as I arrived at the Shell station.

3-26-2016 Cumberland Shell

Other than stopping for traffic lights this was the first break on the ride. I sat in the sun to keep warm because the breeze was chilly. The weather screenshots while I was eating.

From the Shell station I estimated it was 13 or 14 miles to home. For variety after riding through Briar Tree subdivision I turned left into the Auburn Trail subdivision to get to the southbound US59 service road. While I was riding through Auburn Trails a mother was walking with a very young boy (maybe 2 years old) coming to the side of the street she knelt down and showed the boy that I was approaching. As I got near they waved and I waved back.

Entering Kings Manor and Kingwood slows me down with all of the street intersections and riding on the greenbelt rail along Kingwood Drive. My average speed dropped to 15.7, then 15.6 and finally settled at 15.5 mph when I got home at 4:09.

With today’s miles I am within 13 miles of my March goal. I think I can meet my goal.

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Texas Bicycling News Digest March 25th 2016

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Part of Eagle Drive to be updated

By Rhiannon Saegert www.dentonrc.com


A segment of Eagle Drive stretching from Carroll Drive to North Texas Boulevard will be repaved and restriped into a three-lane road with bike lanes running both directions.
During an open house at the Denton Civic Center on Thursday night, the city of Denton streets, engineering and transportation departments provided diagrams of the planned construction and answered people’s questions.
In addition to repaving and restriping the road, broken curbs will be repaired, crosswalks repainted and wheelchair-accessible ramps brought up to current …

Bicyclist Hit, Injured and Driver Flees Scene

By Joe Hyde sanangelolive.com


A man on a bicycle was seriously injured on N. Bryant at 19th St. and rushed to the hospital with incapacitating injuries after a pickup truck hit him, San Angelo Police Traffic Investigator Steven Quade said.
Police said that Thomas Crocker was crossing Bryant west to east riding his blue bicycle on a clearly marked crosswalk when he was struck by a blue extended cab, late model pickup. The exact year, make and …

#critlife

by Chris Degenaars texasbikeracing.com


Chris is a 17-year-old cyclist based out of Dallas, Texas. He races for Team Cadence Cycling pb MINI of Plano and is hoping for a breakout season in 2016. Follow him on Twitter @TheChrisDeg.
Well, it’s that time of the year – criterium season! The “spring classics” are done and Texas turns its attention to criterium racing. Texas is known for its aggressive and fun crits, starting with local “Weeknight World Championships” before diving in deep with back-to-back weekend crit racing in April and May. We are super lucky here in Texas to get to compete weekly at local races to practice the crit skills and prepare ourselves for weekend races.
In Dallas/Fort Worth we have three crits throughout the week – Tuesday in Richardson, Wednesday in …

Monthly Ride Calendar

San Antonio Cycling Club www.sanantoniocyclingclub.org

Tuesday, March 29
9:00am
Tuesday Morning Ride, (every week)
Wednesday, March 30
5:30pm
Wednesday Afternoon Ride, (every week)
Thursday, March 31
9:00am
Thursday Morning Ride, (every week)
Friday, April 1
9:00am
V & V Ride
Saturday, April 2
8:00am
April 2nd – LBJ 100??
Sunday, April 3
9:00am
Braunig Lake Ride (Tom’s Burgers)
11:00am
April 3rd – SiClovia

How to break a chain and fix it with a quick link

Mountain Biking Texas mountainbikingtexas.blogspot.com

So it is a nice sunny, warm day and you decide to drive 30 to 60 minutes out to your favorite mountain bike trail. You get all your gear on and enter your first loop. 5 minutes into your ride, you are face with a slightly steep incline. You change your gears and put pressure on your pedals and your feet fly off. You come to a sudden stop just to realize that your chain broke. That is definitely the worst feeling and you know there are 2 options. You can fix your chain if you know how to do it or go home. I don’t know …

Southern Tier Biking Adventures

By Nate Beiler www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 31: Rest Day in Big Bend National Park
Sunday March 20, 2016
Had a wonderful day off the bike today. This morning after cooking and eating breakfast at the campsite, we drove around to different areas of the park, hiking the occasional trail through more scenic areas of interest. We tried to keep the physical activity involvement to a minimum of course, today being a rest day for us, but the stunningly beautiful landscape made us want to spend some time walking around and exploring the trails, and we’re glad we did. Tonight we’re now camped in a different location of the park from last night, which was ranked one of …

2nd stage on AC

By ron ziols www.crazyguyonabike.com

Marfa, TX: El Cosmico
Thursday March 24, 2016, 27 miles (43 km) – Total so far: 554 miles (892 km)
Oops!! I was at an RV park last night without electricity outlets at tent site – normal. So I recharged my iPhone in the bathroom after dinner. An hour later it’s gone! I leave a ‘please return letter’ $50 reward. Keeping this short, the morning I have a letter, ‘returned to office’. Nothing there. I wait 3 hours, fix a flat tire and eat. About …

An Englishman in America

By Rob Lee www.crazyguyonabike.com

Mar 25: To Camp Wood
Friday March 25, 2016, 48 miles (77 km) – Total so far: 2,203 miles (3,545 km)
Posted via email Fri Mar 25 18:57:02 2016 PDT
I thought I’d try and get back into some routine so set an early alarm for 6 AM. Of course it happened to be one of the coldest mornings for a while so that wasn’t exactly a great incentive to get moving! The campsite at Lost Maples is in a pleasant green valley. So it was nice to watch the sun come up over breakfast – but it takes quite some time before you feel any effect due to the valley sides! I had a quick cycle up into the park before leaving (the road only goes a mile or so in, mostly it’s just hiking trails). Someone parking their car caught my attention and asked if I knew an English person. Confusion ensued, anyway the message was that there was someone waiting for me at the park entrance – I wasn’t expecting anyone!
I headed out and saw Andrew sitting having breakfast just outside the entrance to …

Texas Bicycling from Twitter

https://twitter.com/GWCChuck/status/713549166308368384

https://twitter.com/tsunamicycles/status/713465175563706370

https://twitter.com/vhuckaba/status/713387296330883072

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Lots of Blue Sky But Short 10 Degrees Bike Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Lots of blue sky but about 10 degrees short of where my preferred riding temperature begins as I rode the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman Extended” route. I added the “extended” to the route name to show that I added a loop north of FM1960 after I left the Huffman Chevron. I rode this route before but not this year. The mileage totaled 32.81 and compensated leaving off the couple of miles I typically add at the beginning of this route. I left home at 1:20 which is a little later than I wanted because I hoped the temperature would warm up a few more degrees. My home weather station showed 70 degrees but the Wunderground map showed 68 or so where I was headed. Thankfully the wind has died down from earlier in the week to 4 to 7 mph with lots of calm places. With the cooler temperature I dressed warm: shorts, long and short sleeve jerseys with a windbreaker jacket. I was comfortable except when I was in the shade for extended times.

Apparently other bikers liked the weather too. I saw 8 to 10 bikers starting on Fairlake Drive just before the Old Atascocita Road intersection. After that I saw them along the route. As I riding through Walden, Atascocita, Fairlake Drive to FM2100 I saw route marker signs for the Clay Walker Band Against MS. For some reason I missed adding this ride to the Texbiker event calendar. I fixed that. I may do this ride since it starts about 15 miles from my house.

Riding north on FM2100 I pulled into the Huffman Chevron for a quick break to eat a couple of trail mix bars and refill my water bottle. The Edge 520 screen.

3-25-2016 Huffman Chevron

The weather while I was there. The sign company across FM1960 showed 68 degrees while I was at the Chevron Station. I was glad I sat in the sun.

I was ready to leave and rode north on FM2100 to the traffic light to turn left onto Smith Road. This took me back to FM1960 as the “extended” portion of the route. At the intersection of E. Lake Houston Parkway I saw the ground ahead cleared to extend Smith Road to the west. Also the ground west of E. Lake Houston Parkway was cleared, maybe to add 2 more lanes going south?

Without the wind trying to push me around I made good time to Kingwood and home arriving there at 4 pm. No phone disconnect messages on the Edge 520 during today’s ride.

March miles are now up to 573 toward my 631 mile goal.

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