Texas Bicycling News Digest June 18th

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More than three decades for police bicycle charity relay event

By Ruben Dominguez, Feature Reporter        www.myfoxhouston.com


HOUSTON (FOX 26) – And they’re off! The Houston Police Department bicycle relay team have begun their journey to Tacoma, Washington. This is the 33rd annual ride that the team has launched to raise awareness for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Over a distance of almost 3,000 miles, approximately forty officers will ride to the finish line with dog tags that are engraved with the names of the honored patients battling leukemia and casualties of the disease. Some of the officers are traveling with their sons. Many of the participating members have been riding their…

2014 FWMBA Fat Tire Festival

Fort Worth Mountain Bikers’ Association


The 2014 4th Annual Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival at Gateway Park Benefiting the Fort Worth Mountain Bikers’ Association (FWMBA) is slated to take place on Sunday, July 13, 2014 from 9:00am till 3:00pm Gateway Park!
What happens at the Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival?
The Festival (a fund raiser for FWMBA) will celebrate all things mountain bike including music, food trucks, beverages, special mountain bike events, industry insider vendors, opportunities to join FWMBA, FWMBA t-shirts, the always popular Fat Boy Crit and the chance to ride all the…

USA National Triathlon Team Member Grayson Keppler To Attend Corinth Cycling Group Ride

Corinth Cycling


Prior to the Corinth Cycling group rides on Saturday, June 21st, join us for a short discussion at 6:45am with Grayson Keppler. Grayson has been coaching several of the Harden Racing team members since December 2013 and continues to be instrumental in the team’s success this year. Grayson was recently selected for the USA Triathlon team to race in Germany at the Cross (Off-Road) Triathlon World Championships. He is a…

B/IG Yoga for Cyclists

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2014, 5:45 PM

Rio Plaza, 6205 Upper Valley Road
at Artcraft (parking lot next to Little Caesars_ El Paso, TX

6 Cyclists Went

Beginner/Intermediate Group (B/IG ) presentation and ride. Meet at Rio Plaza, 6205 Upper Valley Rd (at Arcraft). Lesson is Yoga for Cyclists. Certified yoga instructor Jennifer Nielsen-Casas joins us to teach some basic stretches to help you unkink and unwind from your latest cycling adventure. Each Tuesday’s program starts at 5:45 p.m. and the rid…

Check out this Meetup →

Pics and Recap of the Trinity River Revel – Dallas, Texas

Posted by Richard Wezensky        www.bikedfw.org


Four great Dallas amenities opened this past weekend during an event called the Trinity River Revel, and it was celebrated with a Rolling Ribbon Cutting. A large group of a few hundred cyclist – which included a few of Dallas’ elected officials, representatives from local and state bicycling groups (including BikeDFW, Bike Friendly Oak Cliff and BikeTexas) as well as surprise visitor Gary Fisher, all set out on a slow paced rally around the…

A Cloudy Mountain Bike Ride In Wind Damaged Gateway Park Before Taking To Town Talk

Durango Texas


As you can see, via my favorite Gateway Park mountain bike trail photo opportunity location, today I was rolling my wheels under a brooding gray sky.
I did not get the afternoon rain potential memo til this morning. I was still going by the earlier memo which had no rain chance in the current 7 day forecast.
And now the middle of the afternoon has arrived, with the appearance of…

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Rain Tried to Get Me

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Another ride to the north today. I selected the New Caney – Roman Forest – Valley Ranch route to go at least 30 miles. I ended up biking 31.29 miles and averaging 15.4 mph.

There must be something about biking to the north. The last ride I got caught in the rain and it happened again today kind of. I made it to Roman Forest Blvd and turned south on the US59 service road. I could see the sky was threatening rain in the distance but as I almost got to the bridge over Caney Creek it started to rain big drops. I thought about riding under the bridge to get out of the rain but the drops were big and not really wetting the pavement so I rode on to FM1485 and the Chevron station. By the time I got off the Caney Creek bridge the rain stopped. As I pulled into the Chevron station because it started to sprinkle a little I rode to the porch area by the door. Not looking down as I rolled to a stop I felt something wet on my calf. I looked down and a medium size brown dog had put his nose lightly on my leg. He was friendly and after inspecting me he sit down by the door. I waited at the Chevron for 10 minutes or more walking out to check on the rain. Each time it sprinkled some but no heavy rain. I did not want to ride south from the Chevron station if rain was coming since there is no place to get out of the rain and the Grand Parkway construction has dirt on the road which would be muddy.

Finally it looked like the rain was not coming so I left the Chevron station riding on the south bound service road. The closer I got to the Valley Ranch turn the sky got darker. I thought I might get wet before I could get to the Stripes station on FM1314. I made it the Stripes station under the dark sky, hearing some thunder in the distance and went inside to get a drink. While I was paying the rain started coming down a lot. I went outside and leaned against the soft drinks and ate my snacks to wait for the rain to stop and the pavement to dry up some. After 32 minutes the rain stopped and the pavement dried off enough to head out. Riding through Briar Tree the roads were wet but no puddles. From there the roads were mostly dry with some damp places near the edge all the way home. I made it home without any more rain falling. No dirty bike and no grit on me.

The weather changed while I rode. It started at 88 degrees and ended at 79. The wind was not a factor being less than 6 mph most of the time. The wind did turn cool after the Stripes downpour and the perspiration did not help any.

Maybe I should’ve started earlier than 10:58. I was watching the Tour de Suisse till about 10:10 and it took some time to get ready. With all of the delays I finished at 2:11.

Mileage standings:

  • 100.89 miles for the week
  • 597.55 miles for June (287 miles to reach my goal for June)
  • 3001 miles for the year
  • Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS

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Texas Bicycling News Digest June 17th

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Southside Mission Ride

San Antonio Wheelmen

Date:     06/22/2014
Time:     08:00 AM-11:00 AM
Location:     San Antonio, TX
Details: Southside Mission Ride (S) [F to R]. Route of 27, 39, 51, and 61 miles. The routes begin at the parking lot of the Visitors Center at Mission San Jose and travel along the lower section of the Mission Trail past historic missions and the SA River before heading into the flat to slightly rolling terrain of southeast Bexar County. Take exit 137 from I-37 South, turn right on Hot Wells and continue 1.7 miles (road curves to the right after crossing RR tracks just past S. Presa), then…

Always be Prepared

by djcurtin        Bicycle Sport Shop’s Offical Cycling Blog

You might recognize the name Jerry Dusterhoff. He is the man behind the book “Bicycle Journeys with Jerry.” Jerry’s also a Bicycle Sport Shop club member and on a recent ride last month was reminded of the old adage to always be prepared. Here’s his account of a comedy of errors. Hopefully it reminds all of us to make sure we’ve got a plan for the typical roadside mechanical–the dreaded puncture–and to make sure we’re up for the challenge by taking a maintenance class like those offered at BSSU.  (You can check out Jerry’s full blog here.)
IT WASN’T GRAVEL
When you ride in a group, in our case no more than two wide, the accepted protocol is to point or yell out obstacles to give the folks behind an heads-up was to what they are approaching. “Glass” “hole” and “gravel” are what most of these obstacles are, with an occasional “car up.” Glass and hole are self-explanatory, but gravel, while it mostly means loose rocks or pebbles, can mean any sort of loose stuff on the ground. I was prepared for gravel. What I got was something else. Can’t say for sure, but in a split-second, I had two flat tires.
At first I thought I had escaped with an easy front tire change out. But then my back tire was…

Monday Social Ride

Brazos Valley Cyclists


The Monday Social Ride has been going strong for at least 12 years, since I moved to College Station in 2002.  I still remember my first social ride.  This was before the days of Google Maps on the phone, and I was terrified of getting lost and separated from the group.  I stuck behind the group leader like a burr, and I paid careful attention to how we’d gone in case I needed to retrace my steps.
I didn’t need to fear, I wasn’t dropped, but the next week the previous ride leader couldn’t make it.  Someone else needed to take over.  I said I thought I could remember most of the route if someone would help me.  I’ve been the unofficial “Fearless Leader” ever since.  :)  It’s been an…

Bike-Friendly Friday Breakfast

Brazos Valley Cyclists

June 20 @ 7:00 am – 9:00 am
Join us for bike-friendly discussion over breakfast at the Blue Baker on Dominik Drive before school or work.
Venue
Blue Baker
201 Dominik Dr, College Station, TX

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The Wind vs. My Legs

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Riding to Huffman today my legs were not willing or able to counter the stiff wind. I left home at 11:21 and the wind was from the south at 17 mph with 23 mph gusts. The temperature was 88, 48% humidity under mostly cloudy skies. No rain today although there were a couple of stray rain clouds showing up on radar. Before leaving I walked out to the garage and thought to myself the humidity and temperature were already up there but when I check my home weather station I was surprised it was only 88. By the time the ride ended at 2:16 it was 94 and 39% humidity. The wind dropped down some to 9 mph from the SSW with 17 mph gusts.

Before biking today I watched the Tour de Suisse on BeInSport live. The country scenery  is beautiful and HD TV shows it in detail.

I varied the usual route to Huffman some at the beginning and the end. The route totaled 31.3 miles. The 14.6 mph average speed reflects the difficulty I had riding with the wind conditions. There was only one 5 mile segment that I averaged over 16 mph. The rest were 15 mph or less. I am wondering if I might be over training.

While I was stopped at the Huffman Chevron lo and behold the Amtrak train came by. (Click on the image to enlarge it)

Mileage standings:

  • 69.59 miles this week
  • 566.25 miles for June (319 miles to reach my June goal)
  • 2970 miles year to date
  • Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS

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Tomorrow’s weather is forecast to repeat today.