Texas Bicycling News May 7th 2022

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Shaun’s east-to-west solo Route 66 tour

By Shaun Ivory | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 34: Adrian, TX to Tucumcari, NM: I am taking a break…

Friday May 6, 2022, 67 miles (108 km) – Total so far: 1,422 miles (2,288 km) Today’s ride was pleasant, and there was a lot to see in Tucumcari, NM, but I’ve decided to take a break.

The weather forecast for the next week is for unrelenting powerful headwinds, and I am just weary of battling them. I am fine with a 10 MPH headwind, but these 25 – 30 MPH headwinds are just soul crushing.

My sister lives in Albuquerque, and she is going to rescue me in Tucumcari (Tucumcari tonight!), and I will spend a week with her, evaluate the situation next weekend, and consider some alternatives. …

Ride of Silence – North Austin

RedFalcon | bicycleaustin.info

Ride of Silence – Takes place all around the world at 7pm on Wednesday 18th of May. Join us in North Austin on a free family-friendly 8 mile ride to honor cyclists killed or injured on our roads. Helmets and lights required. Leaving from the parking lot south of St. David’s North Austin Medical Center at 2511 Park Bend Drive, Austin 78758 (go to the parking lot on the south side of Park Bend Drive next to the Walnut Creek trail). Arrive by 6:45.

I changed the route a bit this year to make it easier to ride. The suburban wasteland is a very different place than the cool trendy areas in central Austin. We are going to stop at a few spots along the way to look at where cycling infrastructure could be improved and show why our needs in the hinterlands are different from the parts of town the city tends to focus on.

Race loop recon with Anderson 32 15

Slimbo Slice | strava.com

Long endurance ride- today was

Cristian Colonello | strava.com

H?E?A?V?Y? H?I?T?T?E?R?S? vs. ????? in general!

???????????????????? ????????????????????| strava.com

Another incredibly hard ride with several strong men (AND women)! We headed up one of my most dreaded roads, Ranger Creek!???? Of course I got dropped, but finally made it to Turkey Knob. Today was the first time, at least this year, that I’ve felt uncomfortably hot! Glad I didn’t cramp though. Of course, and as always, I am thankful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for allowing me to return to this sport that I love, and for yet another safe ride with great fellowship.????

Do you have any leadership experience? Me : “I once had an ant ???? farm”

Alison Carey | strava.com

Wake up legs. We got work to do

Kevin Highfield | strava.com

Group ride with the P3 event, then Mark and Russ letting me know how sluggish I am today

Pedal to Padre 2022

Daniel Cruz | strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Event Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Light Wind, Numerous Cyclists, Early Start

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Today’s bike ride was off at 8:25 AM, the earliest start time this week. I wanted to start about 20 minutes earlier but I couldn’t get everything ready. I rode my Cervelo Caledonia bike on the “Atascocita – Huffman – Walden” route for 32.35 miles. Those miles bumped my week total to 228.7 miles and May to 250.09 miles. My goal for May is 700 miles. Year to date I am at 2551 miles, 24 miles behind 2021 and 175 miles less than 2020.

The reason I like to start Saturday bike rides early gives me the opportunity to see other cyclists. Today I saw numerous cyclists starting on Kings River Drive on the way to Huffman. I think I got all of them in the video though the last group was from a distance.

So far this year I biked this route 6 times. All 6 times on my Cervelo Caledonia bike. The distance typical for the route as was the effort number.

5-7-2022 YTD Bike Rides Atascocita - Huffman - Walden
5-7-2022 YTD Bike Rides Atascocita – Huffman – Walden

Finally the wind let up staying in the single digits for the whole ride. Weather conditions: start 75 (humidity 99%, dew point 75), mostly cloudy, wind SE 6 mph; finish 84 (humidity 70%, dew point 73), mostly cloudy, wind SE 8 mph.

Thanks to the light wind I rode 1:23:27 in the 35×13 gearing out the total ride time of 2:21:22. Distance was 20.8 in 35×13. The 35×15 gearing time was 37:40 or 7.6 miles. The AXS.SRAM.com ride report recorded 29 RD shifts.

5-7-2022 Strava Atascocita - Huffman - Walden Data Summary
5-7-2022 Strava Atascocita – Huffman – Walden Data Summary

Texas Bicycling News May 6th 2022

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Specialized Austin begins serving bicycle-enthusiast clientele at Domain Northside

By Claire Shoop | communityimpact.com

Specialized Austin, a bicycle and cycling shop, began serving customers at its Domain Northside brick-and-mortar store on April 22.

The showroom, located at 3200 Palm Way, Ste. 150, Austin, carries a small inventory of bikes and focuses on Turbo—the brand’s electric pedal-assist bike. Additionally, the store has a curated selection of equipment and accessories, and offers service consultations for bike repair and custom builds.

A grand opening event is planned for May 28. 512-746-7201. www.specializedaustin.com

MS 150 2022 | Houston to La Grange to College Station | Liquor And Wood … from bikehouston

Ft. Worth to New Orleans

By Jo Hodgin | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Jasper, TX to Merryville, LA: May the 4th be with you – Sorry, had to do it!

Wednesday May 4, 2022, 35 miles (56 km) – Total so far: 213 miles (343 km) Two trip milestones today:

1.We joined the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier Route, which means we can take advantage of their thorough maps and route advice. Our favorite advice, however, comes from our friend Doug who is ahead of us on this route. He helped us to connect with Elaine and Jim who run a bicycle heaven for the Merryville Historical Society. A peaceful grassy park, a museum and historic log cabin, and best of all their cycle shed, where we slept in air conditioned comfort.

  1. We crossed the Sabine River into Louisiana.

Oh and number 3: we added to our collection of memorable characters. Jim from Newton, TX hails originally from Galax Virginia,and has lived just about everywhere.

Shaun’s east-to-west solo Route 66 tour

By Shaun Ivory | www.crazyguyonabike.com

Day 33: Amarillo, TX to Adrian, TX

Thursday May 5, 2022, 45 miles (72 km) – Total so far: 1,355 miles (2,181 km) There’s a phenomenon I’ve been experiencing in Oklahoma and Texas, and today was a really striking example of it.

Many of these little towns have a grain elevator that you can see from a long ways away. My brain thinks a "long ways" is about one or two miles, but it can be as much as four or five miles. The air is really clear, and the terrain between the grain elevator and me is featureless.

When you combine this with a headwind, and an almost imperceptible ascent, it becomes an almost comically unending slog to reach it. It’s very discouraging. I’ve stopped looking at my speed while I’m riding, because it is just very …

Laredo Parks Department hosting glow bike ride event

By Ruben Villarreal | www.kgns.tv

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) – The City of Laredo Parks and Recreation Department is inviting families to roll on over to Slaughter Park for a special bike ride event!

On Friday evening, the parks department will hold a glow bike ride event at 6 p.m.

The theme of the event is superheroes and prizes will be awarded for the best decorated, best illuminated and most creative bike.

You can bring your own bicycle, or you can rent one from the city; however, they are only available on a first come, first serve basis.

It’s all happening at Slaughter Park at 202 North Stone.

For more information call 956-729-4600.

Lone Star Circle of Life tour starting in Waco

by: Matt McGovern | www.valleycentral.com

WACO / TEMPLE, Texas (FOX 44) – The Lone Star Circle of Life Bike Tour (LSCOL), now in its nineteenth year, starts in Waco on Saturday.

This event aims to educate Texans about the critical need for life-saving donations of blood, marrow, organ, and tissue. As organ recipients, donors, or family members of donor recipients, each cyclist on the twelve-person team has a reason to promote donation. …

Ralph Zuke Rides Again To Fight Polio Plus

By Randy Pierce | www.heraldpubs.com

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS – Ralph Zuke, past president of the Fairview Heights Rotary Club, is currently on his way to Houston, Texas but not flying in a plane, travelling by train or driving a motor vehicle. He is, for the second time in his life, riding a modified bicycle to the Rotary International annual worldwide conference in an effort to raise money for the organization’s Polio Plus program. Riding a self-propelled “Barcolounger Rickshaw,” Zuke left from St. Louis, where he transferred his Rotary membership to a couple of years ago, this Monday, May 2, and plans to arrive the day before the conference begins on June 3. Covering a distance of over 1000 miles, Zuke is taking on this kind of challenge less than five years after having previously pedaled his way to the RI conference in Toronto, Canada, in 2018, a 22-day trip which saw him raising $24,000 that was used toward the international effort to completely eradicate polio from the earth. That total was matched at a two-to-one ratio by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which brought the entire contribution to $72,000. …

Final Day TDR Gonzales to New Orleans

kelly May Nolan | strava.com

Gravel tour De Big Spring

Corey Ray | strava.com

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdOmbZJlsoi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Major Timberland Drive Sidewalk Project to Begin Monday in Lufkin

Danny Merrell | kicks105.com

Over the last few years, perhaps you’ve noticed quite a bit more foot traffic and bicyclists traveling up and down Timberland Drive in Lufkin. This can be quite problematic as motorists and pedestrians try to share the same stretch of roadways. As a result of this, officials with the Lufkin District of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) have announced plans to add sidewalks running nearly the length of Timberland Drive.

A pre-construction meeting was held Thursday, May 5 in the Lufkin Area Office which signals the beginning of this new construction project. Work is expected to begin Monday, May 9, to construct additional pedestrian sidewalks that will be located on the west side of Business 59/Timberland Drive from Denman Avenue to about 1,180 feet north of Forest Park Boulevard. That would put the north end of the sidewalk near …

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Haircut Aerodynamic Test But Little Wind

Texbiker.net Posted on by

With all of the wind lately I decided to get a haircut yesterday to see if that improved my aerodynamic profile. Today’s bike ride would be the test of that theory. Before leaving on today’s bike ride I watched stage 1 of the Giro d’Italia. It was about as flat as the roads where I ride. When that finished I got ready for my ride rolling away at 10:57 AM on my Cervelo Caledonia bike. I chose the “New Caney – Roman Forest Blvd – Valley Ranch” route which is similar to the “New Caney – Roman Forest Blvd – Oakhurst” route. Maybe I need to combine those two. So far I rode today’s route 2 times in 2022.

5-6-2022 YTD Bike Rides Summary Today's Route
5-6-2022 YTD Bike Rides Summary Today’s Route

The 32.8 miles boosted the week’s total to 196.34 miles, probably the closest I’ve been to a 200+ week without getting there on Saturday. May totals 217.73 miles. YTD I am at 2519 miles, trailing 2021 by 20 miles.

My new aerodynamic look didn’t get much of a test because the wind never got in the double digits before I finished at 1:33 PM. Last night’s rain storm brought different weather with slightly cooler temperature and a shift in the wind direction.

How the weather looked for the bike ride: start 80 (humidity 66%, dew point 68), fair, wind calm; finish 84 (humidity 59%, dew point 68), a few clouds, wind NE 9 mph.

The AXS.SRAM.com ride report shows a big difference in time spent in the 35×13 gearing versus the 35×15, 1:30:24 and 32;10 respectively. I made 35 RD shifts, 1.06 per mile on average. Total riding time was 2:22:35.

5-6-2022 Strava New Caney - Roman Forest Blvd - Valley Ranch Data Summary
5-6-2022 Strava New Caney – Roman Forest Blvd – Valley Ranch Data Summary