I'm not sure where it was (coursewise) but the stop was at a big high school and they were selling sodas and candy bars, and there were some awesome sprinkler nozzles out front. It was 90+ degrees by then, and I took my shoes off for a bit and got cooled off.
The trick that I used to combat the heat a couple times in the second half was putting a couple handfuls of ice in my jersey pockets.

I'm going to be "that guy," you know, the one that chimes in with the buzzkill when everyone's happy and smiling. You'll read about this on plenty of StP threads, but no one has mentioned it herein; the first 20 miles is pretty dangerous. I saw no less than 5 crashes just in my close proximity (no, not due to my riding!) and heard about many, many more. The huge crowd in Seattle at the start can be pretty twitchy and nervous. You have guys doing pacelines at 24+ blasting past without warning, folks on Target brand bikes just out for the experience of riding the first few miles weaving in and out of the flow, and just a general mayhem of riding. Some folks really groove on that environment...I learned that I do not.

2008 was my first (I did the 1 day) and it will be my last. I am glad that I did it once, and after about 40 miles things really start to string out and it gets safer. I'd certainly not steer you away from doing it, it's a huge accomplishment, but just be very wary through the first 20 miles at least. And remember to yield right/pass on the left...after some sort of warning.

If you really, really love your fellow man disregard everything above

I did the STP in one day on zero training (as in, barely ridden a bike in 2 years). Granted, it took me 15+ hours to finish, but I did it! :roflmao2:

I trained a decent amount this year (logged over 65k of climbing in June alone) and did the death ride in ~13.5 hours total time (including close to an hour at Pickett's waiting for the hail to clear).

It's a different type of riding, sure, but if you can do the DR in 9 hours, you'll have no prob on STP -- not so much because of the DR experience, but because it implies you're not just a casual cyclist.

As some have mentioned, the start is a bit dangerous, but if you want to do it, don't let that scare you off. No different than passing 4 wide @50+mph coming down Monitor with 3 coming uphill at you!

Thanks to all you PNW's for all the responses to the Death Ride. (How do you ride in the rain? I'm a CA - no rain - wimp.) Sounds like more than a few of you have done it. It is a grueling SOB, especially by-passing Turtle Rock and grinding up Carson Pass.

I don't mind pace-lining, but think we will do so after the dust has settled. My experience tells me that there are a lot of people in a pace line, at the beginning, that have no clue what to do. It gets a little dicey.
I am looking forward to next year. Hopefully we can get in.
Cheers

Thousands and thousands finish each year without ever crashing. (Only 8000 can sign up)

I didn't do the paceline thing until I was warmed up, settled in, had my gear stowed, and my brain on; about five miles in. After that I was in a very fast [24+mph] paceline, passing other pacelines, until Puyallup, were I ran out of steam(that lack of sleep is a killer) and there was road construction that slowed down all the fancy bikes (I kept zipping along in the dirt on my 27x1-1/4" 36spoke steel frame bike.)

Last year I worked the mechanic station at REI headquarters in Kent(huge stop about 20 miles in, near the warehouse district) Mostly did the little stuff and triage, Park Tool and Pedro's mechanics did the fancy stuff.
I saw a lot of ??? stuff, especially once the two day riders start rolling in around 9:00. Really, if your going on a 200mile ride and your bike hasn't been used in a few [or 25] years, don't you think a visit to the mechanic for a tuneup, a couple of days before the ride, would be useful? It's not a last minute decision, enrollment generally sells out more than a month ahead.
It was fun though, I'm starting to think I like working on bikes more than riding them.

The same way you ride in the sun.

The rider cap for 2008 was 9,500 and they're talking about opening it up to 10,000 for 2009.

If you string all 10,000 riders evenly over 203 miles, that's 1 rider every 107 feet... but let's be more realistic about it.

Around 2,500 riders leave in the first 90 minutes to get a jump on the 1-Day finish. Let's just pull them out of the equation and discuss the remaining 7,500 2-Day riders.
If the fastest of them leave first at 20mph and the slowest leave 2 hours later, that's a 40 mile gap to cram 7,500 riders into. Evenly spaced throughout the 40 miles (like that would ever happen) that's down to 1 rider every 28 feet... for forty solid miles. But remember, it's a wave start (at least early in the pre-dawn hours it is) so you have clusters of a few hundred riders starting as a pack rather than a steady trickle of riders heading onto the course.

It's a well organized ride, but it's still a really hairy first 30 miles to get out of the really thick crowds. I didn't actually take more than a water-stop until I got almost 60 miles in.

me too - i found that avoiding the official stops was a great strategy for saving time!

ok, so i spent a few of my own bucks on water & snacks, but the restroom i used had A/C!

next year i'd love to only stop 2-3 times overall (last year i stopped 5-6 times).

Agree with the comments above that the first 50 miles are dangerous. I would add the 2006 route had a municipal trail that paralleled a road for some miles and there were these raised metal spots along with the anti-car barriers at intersections that were downright dangerous. I saw more than a few close calls and heard of many more accidents. Please be careful out there.

Same way you ride in the bloody hail on the death ride -- cursing the whole effing way! :roflmao2:

I am also thinking about doing the STP for the first time this year and would like to do it in one day. The training tips are very helpful. I have been commuting to work on my bike 3 days/week. It's 40 miles roundtrip with about 800 feet of ascent each way. It sounds like if I continue that riding as a base, and add some longer rides on the weekends to get used to more continuous saddle time, I should be in good shape?

I have a question on pacelines. I've ridden in a paceline with friends, and understand the basics (keep a steady speed, no sudden braking, signal and move left when dropping off the front, etc.). But I will likely be riding the STP by myself and have never done an event like this before. in this situation, what is the etiquette on hooking onto a paceline?

The polite think to do is to tell the person on the back of the line that you are on their wheel and to drop off if they ask you to. Some pacelines don't mind you drafting as long as you stay out of the rotation. If so, make room for the person coming off the front to pull in in front of you. Some less formal pacelines will expect you to pull when your turn comes up. It's best to speak up, don't be shy.

I think you'll have the base miles just fine. Do a few century rides early in the season, and maybe a 200k to get accustomed to longer hours in the saddle, and you should be fine. My longest ride was a 200k before doing the STP.

Pacelines come in 3 varieties (that I saw) on the STP:
- Organized teams; and for the most part they will not let anyone hang with them. Watch the Starbucks, Honeywell or Amgen teams rip past at 25mph. All the outfits, exactly the same. It's a team training session and you're not invited.
- Fast impromtu lines; 20mph+, not a corporate team, but everyone is experienced with close quarters paceline riding. Expect the standard order barking, etc. that such a style of riding necessitates.
- Slow impromptu "lines"; 16mph, long strands of riders that glom together out of jovial conversationalism rather than any desire to crush their previous finish time. Not really fast enough or close enough to benefit from the riders surrounding them, it's more like a big rolling garden party. Fun to ride in because the conversation takes your mind off the miles.

In reading this thread I realized I forgot all the first mile or 2 of the start. I saw a lot of crashes most minor but one broken shoulder within the first 2 miles. It is some sketchy going those first 2 miles.

Yell a lot and you should be fine.

Also, if you plan on riding with other people either wear the same jersey or make meetup points. I started the ride with 12 friends and saw 0-2 at random points. Anyone more than 5 feet away is effectively lost in the sea of people.