Pacific Northwest - Cascade says STP "selling like hotcakes"

Recently posted on CBC's Message Board (http://www.cascade.org/Community/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=13407) is news that some 8300 of the 10,000 (?) registrations for the STP have been sold.
At that rate it will be sold out well before the Flying Wheels "Fitness Check".
Nice that they are sharing this information. In the past it seems like sales were hush-hush.

So, they opened the rider cap by another 1,000 people this year? I heard rumours of it happening when I rode STP last summer.

I think they did last year. I thought they had capped it 9k and then later read it was 10K who rode.

They've been selling about 500 more registrations each year, and then there are another bunch of riders - medical, ride refs, etc. - to add in for the overall total

If I remember right, last year was 9500 and was sold out in May.

No, last year sold out right before Flying Wheels, something like June 11, it's on the Cascade website the day that it sold out.

Wow, I rode it last year and found it be a zoo on the early pit stops, still a fun ride, especially the Longview bridge...

116 spots left, as of one hour ago...

It's funny, the first thing anyone says to me about this ride is to watch out for other riders during the first 40 or so miles.

6/1/09: STP is sold out!

http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/index.cfm

It's funny, the first thing anyone says to me about this ride is to watch out for other riders during the first 40 or so miles.

Yep, the descent down to Lake Washington Blvd is quite sketchy, lots of folks pumped up and not used to riding in large groups going around the hairpin turns...

Yep, the descent down to Lake Washington Blvd is quite sketchy, lots of folks pumped up and not used to riding in large groups going around the hairpin turns...

The issue I found last year was people dropping/tossing stuff.

On the rough pavement sections before LWB, there were lots of people losing water bottles; either hitting a bump and popping it from the cage or hitting a bump and dropping it.
On LWB there were a few of the people treating the STP like the Giro and tossing their tyvek jackets into the shrubs once they warmed up (uncool), like the residents there would treasure it as if Tyler Farrar himself had written a personalized autograph on it.

Watch for stray bottles in the corners, and my advice is to just refill bottles at the first (20mi) rest stop and skip the rest of the craziness there; although it is fun to see it all. Last year the first stop's theme was Vegas, IIRC, and there was a really bad Elvis impersonator directing bicycle traffic. :)

On the rough pavement sections before LWB, there were lots of people losing water bottles;
and a lot of clip-on-to-the-seat-stay red blinkies, too, at least early in the morning when the street looked like a horde of red fireflies had just landed.

Another prime location to pick up water bottles is the Oregon portion of the Longview bridge. Some graphite bottle cages don't hold bottles any better here than they did in the Giro a few years ago.

Being someone who is looking to sign up for the next one; This thread has been gorram'd informative.:thumb:

I just check the site and STP is SOLD OUT.