I was out of bed a little before 6 AM to get ready for the drive to Galveston Island for today’s bike ride. I didn’t quite back out of the garage at 8 AM like I planned but I was only 10 or 12 minutes late. Traffic on US59 at downtown Houston slowed me down some but once I was passed that it was steady driving the Jeep to the island. Getting off I-45 at 61st. street I drove west on FM 3003 to check for road construction. Last year when I biked on July 26th (in the video I give the wrong date) there was road construction from the west end of the Seawall going west several miles. No construction today except on the far west end of the island. I turned around there and drove back to a beach access point with parking.
From there I got the Cervelo Caledonia out of the Jeep, put all of my bike gear on and set off heading to the NE. Last year I rode 35.12 miles and this time I wanted to go at least that far and maybe more. Today I rode 41.92 miles. Riding to the NE the wind was very helpful and I built my average speed up to 15.7 mph until I reached the west end of the Seawall. I slowed from there as I continued biking on the Seawall but still enjoyed the semi-tailwind. Around the 21.2 mile point it came time to make the turn back and the tailwind got ugly and became a headwind. At the start of the ride the wind was 16 mph and I don’t think it changed much when I started back to the Jeep. As I say in the video, “Now the work begins.”
The headwind was punishing dragging down my speed from 18+ mph to 12 mph or less while riding on the Seawall to the SW. Moving from the Seawall to FM 3005 the houses on my left on the other side of the road blocked some of the wind as I could tell when there was an opening without them.
With the wind and heat hydration was important and the CamelBak did it’s job. I stopped at a store in Jamaica Beach and bought a large cup of ice ($.50) to chill the remaining water. It tasted good. I should’ve filled the cup fuller. The clerk said it would be another $.50 to refill the cup but it lasted until I got back to the jeep.
Check the AXS.SRAM.com ride report for data on gearing and shifting.
When I pulled up Strava I was surprised with all of the top results. I don’t know if I ever rode and collected this many. The image shows 4 of them.
