daver42

I'm sure they're nice to ride in April and not in 85+ degree weather. Though I satisfied my personal goal at getting down in one day, I'll have to say it wasn't as fun as last year's two day ride where I got to roll and chat with others and also take in the scenery. This year was more about sticking with the pack and roll into the finish before it closed. I think I'm done with STP for a while. Looking foward to the RSVP next year.

mcoomer

Does anyone know what happened to the woman who crashed at the bottom of the long hill heading down to Rainier from Seward Park? It would have been about 7:15 AM. They carted her off in an ambulance. I didn't see any damage to her bike so I wonder if she had a medical emergency.

Skyler_WA

It was my first STP and I finished at 7:40 PM, so my riding time was 12:25 and my total clock time was 14:55. My longest previous ride was 104 miles, so I had no idea how long it would take me to do 204 miles and I was glad to get in before the 9pm finish line closing.

Unfortunately, I caused my own accident at the left hand corner in Roy at mile 63.8. I was near the tail of a large paceline and got a little too close to the rider in front of me and realized too late that I was on a tighter turn trajectory than him. There was a split second of burning rubber and the next thing I knew my bike and I were sliding across the pavement.

Fortunately, I didn't take anyone else down with me. I was very impressed with the rider in front of me and the two behind me that all stopped and made sure I was OK and stayed with me until I assessed that I and my bike were OK and got back on the road.

I ended up with some mild road rash on my knee and elbow, but it wasn't until 120 miles later that I discovered that what I thought was just a bruise on my hip was actually a severe 3" circular road rash (my shorts weren't torn or abraded at all). I was only 30 miles from the finish at that point, so I just waited until I got to the finish line and got changed out of my bike shorts and then I went to the First Aid tent and got it cleaned and bandaged up.

As many have said before me, those rolling hills from Napavine to Lexington in the middle of the heat of the day were grueling.

Overall, it was a great experience and I was glad to prove to myself that I could make it in one day.

Luwin1026

Short Version: First time STP-er, completed the One-Day with ride time of 11:57. Great ride, great people, well-organized, a wee bit muggy at times, but absolutely LOVED it!



Long Version:


A Few Weeks Prior

I had heard about this ride awhile back, and thought it'd be fun especially as the PacNW has a place in my heart after being a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines. I signed up for it just after graduating in June when I was able to make sure I would have the time off before starting work in late July. My original intention was to do it in two days (roughly 100 miles each day) as most of the 9,000 riders that do it opt to do so. I figured that I'd had a few 50-60 mile rides under my belt, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to do a century (or two). I had no specific training program - just try to sneak time whenever I could and ride. Most days I would be be lucky if I squeezed in 20-25 miles or so.

As the event drew near, I started leaning towards trying for the one-day (204 miles). I figured that I'd be bored at the midpoint anyways after finishing the first day if I were to stay there as I didn't have any friends riding with me, and although it's probably illogical thinking, I figured that one day of suffering was better than two days of semi-suffering. Training-wise, I know that it would have been ideal to do a 100+mile ride, but there was a part of me that didn't want to break my century cherry on a solo training ride. I was hoping to do it all in one shot - complete my first century and double all at once. My goal was simple - finish. And not keel over and die along the way.


Day Before / Day Of

Thanks to fellow SoCal member DanteB who so graciously loaned me his bike case, I was fortunate enough to have means to pack up my own bike and bring it up with me rather than scrambling around to try to rent/borrow one. I flew up the day before the event on a Friday. Or should I say, I attempted to fly up. People have always conveyed a sense of awe and jealousy when finding out about flying non-revenue (translation: free), but one thing that I always reiterate is the fact that I fly standby, and I have more than my fair share of stories of not getting on flights and having to wait for hours. Back to the story at hand. I arrived at the Burbank airport for a 2:40 flight, and waited for the agent to call my name to issue me a boarding pass. Long story short, I wasn't able to get on despite the plane having empty seats as they were weight-restricted because of the heat (Burbank-shorter runways). The next one out would be around 5, but there were no seats. So I called my dad to come pick me up and take me to LAX so I could try my chances there as there were more flights going out.

Sitting in traffic on a sweltering Friday afternoon in a car with no A/C (my dad's car was in the shop - he was borrowing my uncle's) with nary a bottle of water in sight is not my idea of hydrating myself the day prior to a long ride. Finally got to the airport around 6:15, and I was fortunate enough to grab a seat on a flight.

Got into Seattle at around 10:15. Waited at baggage claim for my bag/bike for a whopping 45 minutes. Got my bag. Went over to the oversized baggage area - guy pulls up in the baggage truck and unloads some stuff. No bike. I asked what flight it was for, and he informed me that it was indeed my flight number. Again, no bike. I talked to the baggage agent (I would hate to have her job!), and she told me there was a chance my bike would arrive on the next flight that was due in at 12:50am. Luckily, the friend I was staying with was very understanding and her and her husband picked me up and I was able to get a whole hour of sleep before heading back to the airport at 3am with the hopes that my bike was there, and then booking it to U of W where the start was so I can assemble my bike and get on my way. Bike was there (whew!), and it was off to the races.


The Ride

So here I am, in the parking lot of U of W as riders started arriving around me and got ready. I had a bike case open on the ground, parts and tools sprawled everywhere, and received more than a fair share of sympathetic looks from passerbys. It was more of a "Damn, I'm so glad my bike is ready to go and I'm not THAT guy" kinda look. At this point, embarassment was thrown out the window as I was focused on getting going. My original intention was to start at the earliest possible time (4:45am) to avoid the crowds, and I managed to get the bike assembled, myself dressed/geared up, and drop off my luggage on the truck bound for Portland to make it to the start line at 5am (they start the riders in waves).





So I start. The last 12 hours had seemed like a daze to me, as it was running around, with stress levels and emotions high. I was running on one hour of sleep and a donut that was hastily picked up from 7-Eleven. And here I was, a newbie from LA in unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar riders. Too late to turn back now.

I made it to the first rest stop (REI in Kent) uneventfully, and was feeling good. I sought out some help with a shifting issue (my rear derailleur was get caught up on one of the middle cogs and lag in shifting over that one gear), and it improved a little big but wasn't completely resolved after the mechanic did some cable adjustment/lubing/etc.









Moving on, up to 70 miles or so, I felt great and was easily averaging close to 18mph, and was able to catch a few long stretches with various pacelines which I totally appreciated. The infamous Puyallup hill wasn't too hard, and I reminded myself to stay hydrated and tried to eat on the bike whenever I could. Nutrition-wise, I made the mistake of packing my jersey pockets and top-tube bag with packets of drink mix (Heed) and left little room for food (Jelly Belly Sport Beans, PayDay bars). I was worried mostly about hydration, and if I would have better studied the route ahead of time, I would have discovered that 1) I could buy cold drinks at the ministops, and 2) we pass by a good number of convenience stores/gas stations ever so often. I ended up only using one drink mix, as an ice-cold Gatorade/Coke/Mountain Dew tasted a helluva lot better than warm water mixed with some powdered stuff.









The only incident I had the whole ride was a big group of us having to stop as there was a brief road closure, and as I signaled and came to a stop, a female rider rammed into my back wheel, and she went down. Luckily I was unclipped already, so there was no harm to me, but I felt bad for her. I stayed back while the group rolled and made sure she was with friends and that she was ok. Turns out she was signaling to stop and her hand slipped off the brake. Honest mistake, no harm (save for a scraped elbow on her), no foul.

Luwin1026

I slowed down a little en route to the midpoint in Centralia, but still managed a respectable 5:40 ride time with a 17.7mph average for my first century ever!









A peanut butter jelly sandwich and an orange Creamsicle later, I was on my way. I knew that my second half would be slower, and there were a lot less pacelines to catch, so I rode a bit of it alone. Although the STP course is overall pretty flat save for a few climbs, there were rolling hills galore from mile 100 to around 150 or so. I think it took me an hour to go the first 13 miles after the lunch stop, but I didn't mind too much as I was set on the simple goal of finishing.





Luckily I caught a second (more like eighth) wind and starting hauling. And older gentleman caught my wheel and I thought to myself, "Awww, now I gotta push it a bit to not look bad!" Eventually what was one rider riding my wheel turned into a paceline I couldn't see the end of, and I was pulling. So I am maintaining a 20-21mph pace and feeling good about myself for close to 20 minutes plus, and started to secretly hope that 1) someone would come up and share the pulling duties, or 2) there would be a traffic light or stop of some kind so I could quietly blend into the group. I saw a rest stop just ahead and pulled in to the gas station for some ice cold beverages.








The next 30 miles of the ride was a mixture of highs and lows. There were times when I was mentally tired and riding slowly on the far right of the shoulder/bike lane at 13mph or so, and times when I found something inside me to allow me to push at 20+mph. Grinding up the Lewis and Clark bridge as you leave Washington and enter Oregon was a bit tough with cars flying by you, but it was nice to know that at least you made it to the finishing state.





I stop at a ministop at Mile 162 and downed a hot dog - a simple hot dog had never tasted so damn good. I pressed on, and stopped at a convenience store/gas station for another cold beverage refill as I wanted to bypass the last rest stop and try to haul some ass to the finish. And for the most part I did. Entering downtown Portland for the last 3 or 4 miles, I knew that my ride was nearly done and let the adrenaline spin my cranks as fast as I was able to. It was neat because apparently they somehow see your bib number ahead of time, so as I entered the finish line area, the announcer announced my name and hometown on the loudspeaker, adding to the elation of finishing. I slowed for my STP One-Day Ride patch, parked my bike next to a picnic table, and sat for awhile. I didn't feel completely beat up or anything - it was a nice kind of tired. I seriously was just shocked/happy/relieved that I finished, considering my lack of any specific/intentional training. Overall stats:

Distance: (according to my computer) 203.36 (c'mon, let's just round up to 204)
Average speed: 16.9mph
Ride Time: 11:57
Total Time: just shy of 15 hours

sherwoodforest

Wow, what a great report! Thanks!

Anyone have any stories of a two-day ride? I'm hoping to do it in two days next year.

East Hill

Great report Luwin! Glad you had fun.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I may have seen you! What time did you hit REI?

East Hill

Luwin1026

I think I hit REI right around 6:15-6:30? After grabbing a banana, most of the time was spent around the entrance where the repairs were being done. What were you wearing/what bike were you riding?

East Hill

I was not riding in the STP, I was on my way home from work! I may have seen you earlier, at the South 196th Street overpass in Kent. The Interurban Trail runs underneath, and I pulled off and watched people stream by. I had thought I had seen a SoCal jersey...would you have been the only one there with one?

East Hill

Phantoj

First STP and first ride substantially over 100 miles.

The coolest part for me was when I came to the last little hill in Portland - some Italian-looking guy was out there shouting encouragement in a language I couldn't understand.

I rode with five other guys. We did it in about 11 hours ride time, about 15 hours total (!!!). Our rest stops lasted about twice as long as I would have liked. We had a cruising pace of about 19-21 mph, which was pretty mellow, but we were able to keep the pace steady over the whole ride.

Mash Master

Great report Luwin! If you saw a guy in a Seattle jersey riding with a guy in a spagetteos jersey that was me. (the one in the Seattle Jersey) I think I saw you, or at least someone else in a socal jersey.

Where was the big egg? I totally missed that.

oldblue

Winlock home of the worlds largest egg and the world famous egg day festival.

oldblue

The true nonsese here is some one that would take the time to read a thread about an activity they do not enjoy participating in and then take the time to make critical comments about it.

velocity

Saw the after math of a couple of accidents one of the guys we were with got mirrored by a truck. This was my 6th time doing this in a row. I am already planning next year. I make this my summer's longest ride. I have done it in one day and in two but the thing I like the most is seeing all the great hardware and meeting people. we usually pick up a couple of people to pace with in our line and they get amazed on how well they do with a team. First day to Vader got into town at 2pm second day at P town got in at 11:20 both days we started out at 6:30am rolling time is somewhere in the middle of that and don't really care its just fun! If you cant ride with people you will not be ready to ride with people when there is no more gas.
V

Phantoj

I didn't noticed any carnage. The most memorable crash I witnessed was when a guy in a Sobe jersey botched an attempted trackstand at a light and fell over. He must have been mortified, as he sprinted off out of sight of the witnesses when the light changed.

Daveyboy

Luwin, It sounds like just getting to the start was as much effort as actually riding to Portland. Nice pictures, I wish I'd thought of taking a camera along. You must have been tired when you finally got back to LA.

mattm

kudos to everyone that finished, and those that tried but didn't make it for whatever reason. i was in the washington jersey on a celeste bianchi - thanks to anyone that let us in their pace lines! some of the 60-rider pacelines were really fun.

we did the one day, and had a similar experience as others: made it to centralia by 10:45 (5 hour century), the pacelines were great. our average speed was 21 mph for the first half of the ride. centralia was where the ride really slowed down though, maybe it was the spaghetti but i needed it!

the last 100 miles were much tougher, we finished at 7:30 pm for a total elapsed time of roughly 14.5 hours and 10.5 hours of saddle time. our overall average speed was 19.x mph, we were pretty happy with that, seeing as how my riding partner and i are smokers!

i saw one small wreck at the very beginning, a woman fell at the 4:45 a.m. start, maybe a few feet into the ride. i hope she finished! i also read about the hit and run on hwy 30 - i really wish the STP could avoid that friggin highway altogether.

more details about the ride on my blog: https://cyclinginseattle.blogspot.com...-miles-in.html

Luwin1026

Sunday - I ended up going through Medford on Horizon as the flights directly going into the LA area were all full. The ticket agent was puzzled and looked at me, and said, "Medford?" I told her I just wanted to get home somehow. Summertime travel is a pain, especially for standbys. Once I got on the plane to Medford, I feel asleep during the safety demo and woke up when the wheels touched down. I don't mind being tired now - just thankful I wasn't so tired during the ride.

Sad to hear about that motorist - I'm glad they apprehended him.

umatillarider

did the two day ride. first time - first century, first double century, a fine personal first. anyway, i spoke to an ambulance driver at st helens, and he said he could not understand why stp didn't route the ride on to i-5 in oregon as he said it was much safer than hwy 30. he said there was inadequate vehicle law enforcement throughout the year, and the drivers get away with 70mph as a matter of course.

but i want to thank all of YOU for helping a beginner thru this first long one. i am 64, and all the experienced riders i met, and the stp staff were courteous, patient and just plain great. can't wait til next year.

cole

2ride

The good:
- did it in one day
- weather (maybe a bit warm)
- 9,000 like-minded folks
- volunteers
- non-Cascade feed stops

The bad:
- barely visable Dan Henrys
- poor directional signs (arrows scribbled on cardboard?)
- overall poor signage (didn't see one "caution bike event" sign)
- rednecks in pickup trucks (what's with the no rear window look?)
- unkept mobile homes littering the countryside
- lack of Cascade sponsored services (seems like locals were supplying most of the food/water).
- to few police monitored intersections
- too much highway riding

I don't think I would do the ride again... liked the challenge of doing it in one day but it just wasn't a memorable experience. I expected the experience of the event to match its reputation as one of the country's premier cycling events. Cascade does a good job in putting on Flying Wheels but the logistics and planning are far more complicated for STP, so why not step it up a notch and really make STP a truely unique experience. Riding from Seattle To Portland should no longer be the sole attration.

stringbreaker

A friend of mine that belongs to the gold wing riders club said they were told to take a more hands off approach this year due to liability issues (*&^&%%$ insurance companies were warning that they might be in legal trouble if they stopped to help someone and by chance somebody got hurt or bikes were damaged. He was really bummed cause as he said to me its a chance to help out someone on two wheels even if they don't have an internal combustion engine

donnamb 

<sigh> The world is a very sick place at times.

2wheeled

Great report Luwin & love that S-works. The pictures are a very nice added bonus to your story. Looks like the herd thins out quite a bit over the second part of the ride.

Haven't heard to much from the 2 dayers yet. How was Sunday"s ride?

SandLizrd

I loved it! I flew up from Arizona on Friday, rode the one-day on Saturday, flew home on Sunday, and am glad I did it. Yeah, many of the critical comments are on-target but I guess I forgot to pay attention to that stuff.

All that greenery was freaking me out - it's been so dry and brown around here. Weather was good and I caught tailwind for the last 50 miles, who can complain about that. The worst parts I was anticipating just weren't so bad. There were a few surprises, it wasn't completely uneventful but no flats, no wrecks, no serious lost-episodes, just nothing to really complain about!

I do have to laugh at the "mostly flat" description - you PSW riders have your own definition of flat, now don't you. I climbed over 6000 feet. And the 3-day-old pbj sandwiches were just as bad as advertised. I was completely inspired by the world's largest egg, then I blinked and got over it. But the chocolate milk was just as good as expected! It broke my heart to leave Centralia, looked like so much fun brewing up there, next time it's a two-day for sure. Mt. Rainier was beauty and just got prettier as we went south. And I think I was most impressed by a lady who set up some coolers in her driveway right by the bottom of the Napavine hill. She just does that every year because people are appreciative. And I tailed a couple of Seattle Rando riders on a tandem into Portland, I didn't know the turns and they were real nice to let me tag along. That's the kind of spirit I showed up for, you PSW riders are pretty much OK in my book.

I'll be skipping off to another regional forum for the next ride (Texas is getting lively about the HHH) and maybe I'll be back next year!

vrkelley

Sorry to hear that 2ride. Yeah, I've had the same experiences with Cascade on the Bike 2 work month (4 yrs of participation). They basically supply the event...you have to know your route, and make it happen.