I decided to try something different for today’s bike ride. It has been over a year since I rode the Kingwood – Splendora – Kingwood route and wanting to repeat that ride I loaded the GPS file on my Bolt computer for turn-by-turn directions. I started the ride at 8:58 AM after pausing stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia with 68km left. The reason for the early start; the forecast said there was possibly rain during the afternoon and I wanted to finish the ride before it arrived. Before leaving I switched the saddle on my Lynskey Helix from the BiSaddle to the Velo Senso TT+ to see how it felt on a longer ride. But I forgot to adjust the height for the Velo so I stopped not long after starting the ride. I got the other measurements correct though.The last time I rode this route it was 43.74 miles. Today I biked 44.04 miles. The total for May is up to 274.73 miles. This puts me ahead of the pace to reach my 750 mile goal by 3.35 days (11.35 – 8). Today was the first time riding my Lynskey Helix on this route. The table below shows all of the different bikes used on this route.
The ride didn’t start well though because I missed the turn-by-turn directions going off course as soon as I hit the street. After realizing that I made the corrections but soon noticed that the watts weren’t showing on the Bolt computer again. I stopped at 1.2 miles and powered off the Bolt and restarted it and the watts worked perfectly for the rest of the ride. But the 1.2 miles are not included in the data since it was so soon into the ride. I didn’t merge the two data files. I got back on the turn-by-turn directions following them for the rest of the route. The beginning of the route has a number of shorts and I didn’t pay attention. I start rides in one of two directions and today I went the wrong way.
Biking north I could see the sky in my mirror and it looked threatening. The overcast sky was heavy and the humidity was too. Each mile to Splendora too me farther away in case it started raining. Biking through Splendora to head south back to Kingwood I watched the sky to see if rain was coming. I felt a few sprinkles as I rode through Oakhurst but it lasted just a minute of so. I was relieved when I finished the ride at 12:29 PM and no rain. I wasn’t dry though thanks to the humidity. Weather conditions: Start 77 degrees, 89% humidity, dew point 73.5, overcast, wind S 10 mph; Finish 79 degrees, 85% humidity, dew point 74, overcast, wind SE 13 mph. I was prepared for a headwind going south from Splendora but it wasn’t that strong. I think my direction was enough away from a straight on headwind to keep my pedaling effort lower. I did get this Strava PR on Texan / 99 (1:44) on Valley Ranch Parkway. The results on the other starred Strava segments weren’t as good.
My legs were rested because I didn’t ride yesterday due to rain when I got home from church. It cleared off around 3 PM but later than I wanted to start biking by the time the streets dried.
