This summer is already in the top 5 for hottest on record and and like Mark Cavendish hunting for Tour de France sprint victories looks poised to be the hottest record by the end of August. Does that get us down? Naw, there are a ton of events to commiserate celebrate what is historically the hottest time of year. If racing or riding long is your thing, check out the Ring of Fire in Luckenbach, TX (with Willie, Waylon and the boys.) If riding socially is more your thing, the LOBV will be having a Hottest Day of the Year Ride on Saturday while ACA will be hosting The First Memorial Ride and Picnic for the Formerly Late Stanton Truxillo AND a Cycle to the Symphony Ride on Sunday.

Here’s a quick run down of recommended events for the coming week from our comprehensive calendar of all cycling events. Thanks to Jason at ATXBS for letting us know about some events we couldn’t find elsewhere. As always, if there is an event you know about that’s not on our calendar contact us, and we’ll add your event on and possibly add it to the weekly round up.

Thursday, August 4

Driveway Crit Series
5 PM, The Driveway, 8400 Delwau Lane
Weekly Thursday night road racing through October that takes place on the closed car-free driving course at the Driveway. Races include Cat 3/4 women’s and juniors race at 5:00, Cat 3/4 Race and Women’s Open at 5:30, Kids Fun Lap at 6:20, Cat 4/5 Race at 6:25, Pro/Cat 1/2/3 at 6:55 and Masters at 7:55. Races registration $20 for Men, $15 for Women, & $10 for Juniors/College Students. Full season passes and discount punch cards available. USA Cycling annual or one day license and helmet required. One days for sale at race.

Thursday Night Bike Polo
5:30 PM, Eastwoods Park, 3001 Harris Park Ave
The Austin Bike Polo Club’s weekday match. All bikes and skill levels are welcome and spare mallets and balls are available if you don’t have any. Check out our article on bike polo for more info.

Thursday Night Social Ride
7:30 PM, Festival Beach (north side of Lady Bird Lake just east of I-35)
Now winner of two 2010 Best of Austin Awards! “Disco dancing? no. Texas heat? yes. Crazy fun bike riding anyway? double yes. Okay ladies and gentleman – boys and girls get ready for another great Thursday Night Social Ride. This week we will be headed to the cold north. Nomad Bar will be welcoming us with a free keg o’ ice cold beer and $3 ZU Vodka.” Meet up at 7:30, ride at 8:00. Read our article on the weekly ride.

Friday, August 5

Punch it, Chewie! Ride
7:30 PM, Cheer Up Charlie’s, 1104 East 6th St.
A ride from Social Cycling Austin Pleasure Ride’s Ric Reyes and Laura Brady. “I love riding bikes. Honestly, I do. My schedule doesn’t always permit me to join weeknight rides, so I’m being proactive and creating a ride that works for me. Plus, I named it after Star Wars and used a fiercely bad ass image of Chewbacca doing what makes us all so happy. What else do you want? How’s about a new ride the first Friday of every month? The Punch it, Chewie! ride is a moderate urban group ride of 12-15 miles that will start and finish somewhere uniquely awesome to central Austin each time. The Pleasure Ride’s Ric Reyes will be assisting me as I come into my own as a Ride Leader. He’s my Obi-Wan, and our only hope. On Friday, August 5th, we’ll meet at Cheer Up Charlie’s on East 6th at 7:30 pm. Come earlier for delicious trailer eats and drinks. Wheels down at 8:00 pm. Let’s plan to end at the Grackle. Dude, they have cider on tap. ‘Nuff said.

Saturday, August 6

The Ring of Fire Ride or Race
7:30 AM, Luckenbach, TX
Challenging century ride and race. Choose the ‘Little Ring’, 13 or 26 miles, or give it everything you’ve got on the ‘Big Ring’, 42 or 84 serious Hill Country miles. All riders will be timed so they can measure how they handle the Fire! $3000 purse for the Open Division 84 mile race – $1500 for the first man and $1500 for the first woman across the line! NOT USAC sanctioned, so no racing license required! Field size for the Open Division limited to 150. Teams welcome with no limit of team sizes. Yellow line rule in effect. Please note that all roads are open to traffic and NOT closed.

Mellow Johnny’s Scout-A-Ride: From Mellow’s to Nelo’s
8:30 AM, Mellow Johnny’s, 400 Nueces St
Saturday mornings spent exploring City of Austin bike routes finding new neighborhoods and ways to get around on your bike. This week’s theme: From Mellow’s to Nelo’s. TWe’ll head north along the west side of downtown with a stop at Nelo’s Cycles new location near Steck and Mesa. Our ride will provide us with beautiful rolling hills and a downhill return. The routes are designed to help riders navigate the city bike routes and other safe bike commuting options. Come by at 8:00 for coffee. Helmets required. If driving to the shop, please park in the street.Contact:Stephanie at Stephanie@mellowjohnnys.com.

The Hottest Day of the Year Ride hosted by LOBV
1 PM, Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, 400 Nueces Street
It’s Summer. In Texas. And it’s hot. But when we get together on August 6, it will be hot magic. You see, with an average temperature of 97 degrees, August 6 in Austin Texas is proven with science to be the average hottest day of the year. We at the LOBV believe the Texas heat is no reason to avoid riding your bike, and we want to gather as many people together to prove that as we can. We’ll start with some hanging and water at Mellow Johnny’s at 1:00, and roll out about 1:30 for a nice cruise around town, hitting up various spots around town for swimming, splash pads, food, ice cream, drinks and more. Finally, we’re going to land at Dirty Dog Bar for some music from Fire Drinks Grass, Randall Holt and Bike Problems, as well as free beer from Uncle Billy’s! After the keg is dry, Dirty Dog will have their regular happy hour specials. All attendees of the ride are welcome and encouraged to donate to the cause at the door when we arrive, to help make sure we’re able to continue helping make Austin a safe, friendly and fun city to be a cyclist in.

Sunday, August 7

AFWC Ladies Ride
7:30 AM, Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, 400 Nueces St.
Join the women of the Austin Flyers Women’s Cycling Club every Sunday for an intermediate, ladies-only ride. This friendly, 2.5-3 hour ride averages 15-16 mph, with routes varying each week. It is a great opportunity for women looking to continue their fitness, learn new routes and meet new riding partners. Beginner women are encouraged to check out the Saturday Scout-a-Route ride for a shorter, more casual route.

Austin Cycling Association Annual Summer Ride & Picnic
8 AM, Eilers Park, 401 Deep Eddy Avenue
This year’s summer picnic is a triple feature! The First Memorial Ride for the Formerly Late Stanton Truxillo starts at 8am and the picnic will be from 10am – 2pm. The picnic is $8.00 and will be a cookout with hamburgers, hot dogs & a vegetarian option at Eilers Park, next to Deep Eddy Pool. The 12:30 CPR presentation is free and open to anyone to come sit in on. August 3rd is the anniversary of Stanton Truxillo’s heart attack on the Creedmoor ride, where his life was saved by CPR, and he (the formerly late Stanton) will be on hand to give a pep talk on the importance of CPR. Be sure to bring your swimming suit as Deep Eddy is just steps away.

Cycle to the Symphony Ride hosted by ACA
6 PM, Central Market North, 4001 N. Lamar Blvd
Sociable group ride (12 mph moving speed) with an hour stop at the free outdoor concert. Recommended to bring food and drink. The last 5 miles will at dusk – Lights / reflectors needed. Distance: 15 miles. Contact: Niles Seldon, 512-346-8073, nseldon@ix.netcom.com

Femme Pedále Ride hosted by Social Cycling Austin
7 PM, Festival Beach, 2101 Jesse E Segovia St.
OH YES IT’S LADIES’ NIGHT. Oh, what a night. That’s right, the ride you’ve all been waiting for has reared it’s head full of long, lustrous locks. Come meet us on Sunday for our Ladies’ Night Out. We’ll start at Festival Beach, ride around like we do, then finish off out at the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge (likely around 9-10pm). After-ride funtastic adventures are up for suggestion. This ride aims to promote female butts on bikes via a fun, weekly, ladies-only ride that is geared (pun intended) towards encouraging novice women to feel improvement and ease when riding in groups and to provide more experienced ladies a weekly with our fellow bike sisters. You can expect a pace a little faster than the Thursday Night Social Party Spazztastic Ride, but not quite as fast as the Fast Folks Ladies’ Crazy Haul-Ass Ride. Get there around 7:00 for some happy talky dancey time. We’ll take off around 7:30pm.

Tuesday, August 9

Open House on Rio Grande (MLK-29th) Protected Bikeway
6 PM, St. Austin Catholic Parish, 2026 Guadalupe, in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Room
City staff are looking to connect this through West Campus route with the Downtown Bicycle Boulevard. A detailed schematic and presentation of the proposed street configuration are available online under the Rio Grande heading. If feasible, modifications to the proposal can be made after input received at the Open House, via phone and email. If you cannot attend this Open House, please provide feedback to Nathan Wilkes at 974-7016 or nathan.wilkes@ci.austin.tx.us.

Austin Bike Chix Beginner Ride
6:30 PM, Northwest District Park, 7000 Ardath St.
There is a new series of bike rides in town for those new to cycling or for those that just need to dust off that bike. Austin Bike Chix will be offering a series of rides to Austin Area adults. The rides will start at Northwest Park on March 22 at 6:30 PM and will continue on Tuesdays for 6 weeks. The series of rides will be more like mini clinics (with topics ranging from chains to hills) to give new riders knowledge about the bike and confidence to be able to do the shorter distances on some of the local charity rides and beginner rides in town. These rides are perfect for those wanting to do ride in the Tour de Cure or are a first time triathlete. We will be riding on the road, all bikes are welcome. All rides are free.

Wednesday, August 10

Leander / Cedar Park Social Ride
Meet up at 7 PM, Ride at 7:30 PM, Robin Bledsoe Park, 601 S. Bagdad Rd, Leander, TX
The Leander / Cedar Park Social Ride is held every Wednesday at 7pm at Robin Bledsoe Park at 601 S. Bagdad Rd. In Leander Tx. We usually roll out around 7:30 – 7:45 sharp and welcome and encourage riders of most skill levels no matter what type of bike you ride. I say most skill levels because we do ride at night along streets and usually only go about 10-14 miles and a fairly slow pace. The routes change up sometimes and there are often themes to the rides, just to keep it fun. Drinking usually ensues but not by everyone. We do occasionally have kids that ride with us and we do try to keep to non busy-ish streets and some sidewalks when the streets are busy. We encourage lights and helmets and obeying the law for the most part. We do ride with traffic not against it. I’m sure its pretty obvious that we have pretty much modeled ourselves after the Thursday Nighs Social Ride only in Leander on a different night and a lot smaller.

Restorative Yoga for Cyclists
7:30 PM, Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, 400 Nueces St
Spend your winter keeping the body warmed and relaxed with Restorative Yoga for Cyclists at Mellow’s Johnny’s. Long miles accompanied by yoga will help you release tension, stay injury-free and set you up for a blazing Spring. Our class is great for non-cyclists, beginners and elite athletes. Join us after a ride, run or long day at work or school. Every Wednesday 7:30-8:30pm (downstairs) Suggested donation of $10 or $5 if you bike ride to class. Mat provided by MJ’s.