I did the Tuesday night ride with the Texas Wheels this evening……….. sort of. Apparently, Tuesday night is their night to do climbing work, and Mark Metcalfe wanted to do a flatter route, so he and five others (including yours truly) split off the main group of 20 or so, just south of the first bridge on Lake Ridge.

We rode the same route through those neighborhoods that Rose and I used to, then after passing Britton Park, Mark’s wife turned around and called it a night, and the pace really picked up. We were climbing one of those hills on FM661 heading south to SH287, against a south wind, and I glanced at my gps (an awesome new toy, btw), and saw we were doing 20 mph! After we dropped one of the riders and his friend stayed back with him, Mark slowed the pace some, so they could rejoin us, but it still ended up being an 18.6 mph average for the 30 miles, and no stops. That’s what I call a brisk ride!

After crossing 287, we rode some rural roads I hadn’t ridden before, circled back to Britton Road, then went back the same way we had come, through those neighborhoods on Grand Peninsula, and back down Lake Ridge.

I’ve never known much about the Texas Wheels because they don’t have a web site. This ride starts at 6:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they try to finish before dark (but I always carry a light if I’m going to ride that close to dark………… one problem and you are finishing in the dark).