Mike's Bike Blog

On Saturday Jared joined me for a couple laps around Volente. The weather was great and we had a good time. I did have 1 flat, this is getting quite common and now that I think about it, it might be the tubes. I started getting flats a lot regularly when the supply of tubes at Spin City changed. I believe it's the same manufacturer as before, but the packaging has changed so maybe in their overall marketing overhaul the tube company changed their formula. I don't know, all I know is I'm getting a flat at least every other time I go out. There's only been 1 flat lately that I knew was coming and that was last week on the Granger Dam ride. All the others have been a surprise to me. I didn't have a spare tube, Jared was kind enough to give me his so we'll see if it lasts any longer than what I have been getting out of the life of my tubes.

I had big plans to go 3 or 4+ times around the loop, but by around mile 30 my knee was starting to act up. When we rolled back to my house I didn't have much power left in it. It doesn't hurt to walk on it, the only time it hurt on Saturday was walking up the stairs. By Sunday it was feeling fine, in fact I even went for a 20 mile easy spin with no pain or problems. Looking at my rides it seems to start petering out at about 2000 feet of climbing. 

It had been awhile since I've rode the Volente Circle with anybody so it was refreshing to have someone to keep pace with. Getting up Armstrong Hill I shaved off 11 seconds on my fastest time. On Saturday, my time was 4:05! Next time I'll try to coordinate this better so more people can come and maybe end the ride with a BBQ lunch.

My all time favorite ride is a ride right out my front door practically, it's Anderson Mill Road (2769) to Volente Beach up Limecreek Road. The scenery along the lake is beautiful and the road for the most part is low traffic and there is enough bike traffic on it that everyone is use to getting along. The route is only 20 miles total, with about 1300 feet of climbing. My Saturday plan is to get out on it early and get 4 - 5 hours of riding it in, hopefully about 4 or 5 laps.

This is one of the Austin area must do rides, every group ride I've been on someone asks me where I'm from/live and I generally put it in context that I live over by Limecreek road. Once they hear this they ask if I've ridden on Limecreek and how they love this loop. They usually have a story about "Armstrong Hill" as well.

I'd prefer to get out on the road early, no later than 8am. Either drop me a comment or an email if you can make it and we'll coordinate this. You don't have to ride the entire time with me if you only have time/legs for 1 lap that's cool. Just let me know what you think you will want to do and what time.

Route Map & More Details 

Photos of the route 

On Saturday I met up with the Cyclopaths again this time in the small town of Weir to embark on a 43 mile ride around Granger Lake. I was running a bit late, I had to stop for gas and then sunscreen. I rolled into the meeting place 5 minutes till 8. Luckily there were a few other riders still getting ready and I was ready to roll quick so I wasn’t holding anybody up.
 

 
As we were rolling out Rance tells me about the first climb of the day and how it was approaching. I’ve never ridden this route before so my heart skipped a beat as I was expecting a flat ride. I was over the top of the “hill” before I realized that was the climb he was referring to. We had a stop/regroup at the gas station in Circleville.
 

Shortly after the stop I hit some uneven pavement between a bridge and the road. As soon as I hit it I knew it wasn’t good as I had to pull over with a flat. Everybody went whizzing by. Luckily one person stopped and waited for me to change my tire, thanks Rich (I believe that was his name, correct me if it wasn’t). It took about 12-15 minutes to change and everybody was long gone. We started back on the route and were going about 17 – 18 mph, we caught the end of the group around the Hoxie area, but as we crossed the dam another rider John kicked it in and we were crossing the damn around 25 mph.

Unfortunately at that speed we dropped Rich. I felt really bad and still do, he stayed back for me and I left him. At the end of the dam road another rider was waiting under a tree and said he was waiting for Rich and the others. So I pushed on with John into the wind as we circled the lake and into Granger. You make the call, on a group ride should I have stayed back with the others or was it ok to push on at the faster pace that I’m more accustomed to riding? 

 
As I was going through Granger I wasn’t quite sure where the designated stop was, as I slowed for John to catch up I saw the lead pack ahead pulling out of town. I turned around to see if John wanted to stop and since he didn’t we headed out to catch the main group.
 
The ride back to Weir was uneventful, except for the time I dropped my water bottle and had to stop to pick it up. It was my favorite one with my Gel-Bot so I couldn’t leave it. Once again I had to catch up, at least this time I was only a minute back and not 15.
 
I really liked the route, the traffic was fairly low as most of the ride is on country roads. There were a couple sections, albeit small where we had fresh oil applied to a road and a stretch of 30 feet of gravel roads. If you need a relatively flat route with some rollers interspersed through out then I suggest this route.