Texas Biking News January 28th 2022

Texbiker.net Posted on by

College Station city council members hear traffic congestion presentation

Bailey Brown | theeagle.com

College Station Mayor Karl Mooney recognized the Planning and Development Services Department for receiving the Richard R. Lillie Planning Excellence Award for the 15th time from the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association. Pictured are PDSD members and Mooney.

College Station City Council members discussed traffic congestion and mobility issues after hearing a presentation by Jason Schubert, the city’s transportation planning coordinator.

Schubert presented many avenues in which the city experiences traffic delays and biking accidents, and offered areas for improvement during Thursday night’s meeting.

He shared statistics that College Station has seen in the past. He said from “1982 to 2019, the annual hours of delay per commuter increased from nine hours to 32 hours,” and noted that in the …

Breakfast Club ATX

Drop Bar, Texas: A cycling podcast By Paul Negrete | anchor.fm

Breakfast, beer, and bikes. Following a spirited but civilized ride. Who wouldn’t be in on that? Grant Rogers sat down to talk about the Breakfast Club ATX rides that happen Saturdays in Austin. They are doing things a bit different and it’s good. Listen in and then check them out one of their rides. You will be glad you did.

Music: Back to the Woods by Jason Shaw

Links: Breakfast Club ATX Zimmerhanzel Express Holey Roller Holland Texas Classic La Primavera Lago Vista

‘We need public outrage about this’: San Antonio cyclists unhappy with vote that eliminated bike lanes on Broadway

Erica Hernandez | www.ksat.com

Texas Transportation Commission voted 3-1 Thursday to reverse a planned hand-off of a 2.2-mile stretch, citing congestion concerns

SAN ANTONIO – The cycling community in San Antonio is outraged by the Texas Transportation Commission’s decision to nix San Antonio plans that would have added protected bike lanes to Broadway Avenue.

“We need public outrage about this,” Bryan Martin of Bike San Antonio said.

Martin was one of several cycling advocates who tried to convince the commission in Austin but their words weren’t enough.

The commission in a 3-1 vote reversed the plan to hand off the 2.2 mile stretch of Broadway between I-35 and Burr Rd. …

Leakey

Lupe Ontiveros | www.strava.com

Davy Crockett Gravel Loop

Peter Clark | www.strava.com

Downloaded from Ride with GPS…think there’s more to do here…Gas station @ ~30 miles in Ratcliff…Had a dog as companion for about 5 miles, was thinking I might have to ride back to get it home…mix of surfaces, might get sandy in summer

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Stage 6 Tour de Zwift Douce France Group C

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Tour de Zwift Stage 6 went live this morning and I rode. The Group B ride was longer than I had time for so I chose the Group C route, Douce France. First time on this route. One lap went 15.17 miles and 436 feet of climbing. In the Zwift companion app it listed the ride as 15.4 miles and 448 feet of climbing. No lead-in so I’m not sure of why the distance doesn’t match. A good turn out according to the tally at the start over 1200 and increasing to 1259 by the finish. Four small climbs and then a bigger one but nothing over 5% to 6%. Of the 1259 Zwifters I rode in the 970 to 990 range. I would call the route flat to rolling hills. I used the Specialized Tarmac from my garage since the course was on roads, dirt or gravel. The pace was fast with my 21.2 average mph completing the stage in 42:53.

When I uploaded the TCX file into SportTracks it showed the location as South Province, Caledonia. Not near France.

I looked the route description up before riding at ZwiftInsider.com. What I found, “Literally “sweet France”, this route covers the upper loop of Zwift’s France map which was created for the first-ever Virtual Tour de France. It runs in a counter-clockwise direction, which means it’s just a reverse version of the R.G.V. route.” I rode the R.G.V. route earlier this month but riding it reverse the scenery changes.

Checking in at ZwiftPower.com on how I stacked up in Group C I was 577 out of 675. Overall Group A shows 12 (surprisingly low), Group B 455, and Group D (women only) 8. A total of 1,150. Not sure where the 1259 number comes from. It might include all Zwifters on the route but not necessarily in the Tour de Zwift. Also not everyone registers at Zwiftpower.com.

1-28-2022 Zwiftpower Tour de Zwift Stage 6 Group C ranking

I recorded three personal medals in Strava during the ride: PR on Marina Sprint (38s), PR on Pavé Sprint (35s), 2nd fastest time on Aqueduc KOM (58s). Only 3 sprints today versus the many yesterday.

1-28-2022 Strava Zwift TdZ Stage 6 Douce France Summary
1-28-2022 Strava Zwift TdZ Stage 6 Douce France Summary
1-28-2022 RWGPS Zwift TdZ Stage 6 Douce France Map
1-28-2022 RWGPS Zwift TdZ Stage 6 Douce France Map

Texas Biking News January 27th 2022

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Growth along Grand Parkway spurs plan to widen FM 529 near Katy

Dug Begley | www.houstonchronicle.com

The region’s outward growth is pushing farther west, nudging a once-rural road through the Katy Prairie closer to looking like a city street, drawing alarm from residents who oppose laying more concrete.

The Texas Department of Transportation is proposing to widen FM 529, about three miles north of Interstate 10 and Katy, from the Grand Parkway west to FM 362. The 12-mile widening would be split in two, with the western portion taking the road — also called Freeman Road — from two to six lanes, three in each direction, with 10-foot running and bicycling paths. The western segment would expand the road from two to four lanes, and also include the 10-foot paths for other travelers.

TxDOT officials have given the …

January 27 With Google Remembering My First Mountain Bike

Durango Texas | durangotexas.blogspot.com

On this day, January 27, for the first time since Google has been emailing me supposed memories of a specific day, I actually either remember all the memories, or know what I am looking at, which is a supposed memory.

I don’t know why Google makes the photo look so distorted, because the original was not at all distorted, but at the upper left you are looking across Lake Meridian, in Kent, at Mount Rainier. I was staying at Clancy and Fancy’s and soon after they left for their daily package delivering duties they called to tell me the Mountain was out and looking good. So, I walked down the hill to Lake Meridian, taking photos and shooting video. I will see if I can find the actual photo I took that day.

In the upper right that is …

271: Route Scouting Texas Hill Country Podcast

PedalShift Project | pedalshift.net

Looking ahead to the spring and some new-to-me routes that can check some 2022 goal boxes! This episode, we take a look at the Texas Hill Country loop that begins and ends in Austin. Will this be the one? Route Scouting Texas Hill Country ACA route Ideal in spring Fly in and out from Austin Probably 5-6 days Mostly camping Excellent resources ACA maps Ride with GPS map with resources Downsides limited services in spots water sprawl/traffic/bad interactions Logisitics Brompton capable? Love the in-out via Austin (no car rentals, maybe even no Lyfts needed) Mostly camping, probably some hoteling needed Initial assessment TX hill country gets a lot of great reviews Very unnerved by the reports of bad driver interactions Need to see what the camping situation is – state parks…

Wicked Boxer Ride

Carlos H. | www.strava.com

Great Thursday Training

Eduardo Salas | www.strava.com

Play day with the boys!

Shannon Wyatt | www.strava.com

Texas Biking from Twitter

New Events Added to Texbiker.net Calendar

Zwift – Neokyo Makuri Islands Neon Flats Meetup Ride

Texbiker.net Posted on by

Stage 5 of the Tour de Zwift still active today so I created a meetup. Sticking with the Makuri islands I chose the Neon Flats route to earn another badge. The route was shorter than I wanted to ride so I set the distance to 15.2 miles. ZwiftInsider.com describes the route, “Introduced in Zwift’s November 2021 update, Neon Flats is one of the flattest Neokyo routes around. (Oddly enough, it’s not the flattest – that award goes to Sleepless City.) This is a great route if you’re looking for something flat and fast, with sprint segments to contest.” While the elevations weren’t that high I climbed 394 feet during the 15.2 miles. I chose 15.2 miles because there is a .2 mile lead-in. I try to minimize the climbing because I’m a flatlander. My legs got a workout though.

A few other Zwifters were on the course. At one point the number was 1,038 but that dropped quickly when I turned onto another road. No dirt so I continued riding the Specialized Tarmac from my Zwift garage. In real life the bike mounted on my smart trainer was the Blue Norcross AL.

I lost count of all the sprints. Zwiftinsider.com shows 4 in the lap. Riding more than 1 lap maybe I did 7 sprints. I count them as intervals.

Scenery along the route was very colorful. A few strange looking vehicles and maybe some food trucks. I didn’t stop at any of those.

The livestream ended before I finished when I lost internet connection for 24 seconds at 12:04:25 PM. On 1/25/2022 the internet connection stopped at 12:17:41 PM for 45 seconds stopping that livestream too. My ISP, SuddenLink, is known for irregular connections.

Some of the roads show up in other routes. Strava found these personal results: PR on Tower Sprint (36s), 2nd fastest time on Tower Sprint (39s), 2nd fastest time on Alley Sprint Reverse (38s), 3rd fastest time on Alley Sprint Reverse (40s).

1-27-2022 Strava Zwift Makuri Islands Neon Flats Summary
1-27-2022 Strava Zwift Makuri Islands Neon Flats Summary
1-27-2022 Strava Zwift Makuri Islands Neon Flats Map
1-27-2022 Strava Zwift Makuri Islands Neon Flats Map