Last Saturday, I joined 10,000 other cyclists on Cascade Bicycle Club's 202-mile Seattle-to-Portland ride (full disclosure: Cascade gave me a media pass and waived the entry fee). It was my longest single-day ride by more than 80 miles and left me drained, content, and proud of my accomplishment.

My one-day STP experience began with a 3:30 am alarm (ugh), a 4:20 am departure for the four-and-a-half-mile ride to the start line, and a 4:45 am start with the first giant wave of cyclists leaving from Husky Stadium. It ended a few minutes before 8:00 p.m. at Holladay Park in Portland. The intervening 15 hours were filled with wonderful company (along with a few too many self-satisfied jerks), a mix of beautiful and boring scenery, a lot of eating (often accompanied by too much time at rest stops), and of course, some downright exhausting cycling.

Rather than attempt the typical play-by-play recap of my ride (the recounting of which would no doubt drag on worse than the ride itself), I'm going to highlight the good and the bad—the elements of STP that really stood out and defined the event.

The organizers: Cascade deserves serious kudos for STP. Organizing a multi-day, 200+ mile ride for 10,000 people across two states must be a logistical nightmare. My ride went off without a hitch (the only exception being the painfully long lines for port-a-potties), and I have nothing but praises for the ride organizers, volunteers, and everyone else involved.

The people: The experience of riding with 10,000 other cyclists on the road was fun and fascinating. I often write about the phenomenon of safety in numbers for cyclists. This phenomenon was amplified many, many times over and made even the busiest and crappiest roads feel safe.



There were cyclists of all types, riding everything from $6,000 carbon road bikes, to beach cruisers, to recumbents. There were even a few unicycles and a long-board skateboarder (!!!) doing the two-day ride. As such, there was a never-ending stream of people to talk to.

Shortly after lunch, I hooked up with Mark, a powerhouse randonneur from Seattle, and his college-age son, Sean. I ended up riding with them for the final 80 miles into Portland, the longest I spent with any one group. Mark told stories about wild, ultra-long distance randonneuring events he's ridden like Paris-Brest-Paris (a 1200km ride in France), or plans to ride, like his upcoming 1600km ride in Italy (again: !!!). In addition to entertaining stories and quality company, Mark and Sean offered me the luxury of drafting. The two of them clearly run on pure diesel and graciously let me sit on their wheels when I started to fade between miles 150 and 175.

Like any long road trip, riding a double century is really boring and mentally taxing at times. STP would have been significantly harder to complete without good company.

Of course, there were plenty of jerk-offs as well. I witnessed a really unfortunately example early in the day. A pace line of fast Seattle road racers passed just as a man in his 70s veered slightly to the left, yelling, "hold your fucking line! Jesus fucking Christ!" As the jerks motored ahead (on their way to not win the non-race), the old man just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Some people will never have fun in life."

The Route: Though there were some gorgeous stretches of farmland, forest, and rivers at times, the bulk of STP's scenery leaves something to be desired (particularly given how much stunning scenery Washington and Oregon have to offer). This is less a criticism than an observation, however. Concessions obviously have to be made to accommodate 10,000 riders in various levels of physical fitness. It's clear that topography won out over scenery at certain points.



My only gripe with the route (which seemed to be shared by nearly everyone I talked to) was the long stretch on US 30 between the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Oregon and the outskirts of Portland. It's a fast, two-lane-in-each-direction highway, with rough pavement and narrow shoulders. Cars and trucks go flying by at 60+ mph. After 150 miles of riding, no road is going to feel super fun, but US 30 just made the end of the ride drag on.

The Food: Unfettered gluttony is a very real selling point of long-distance riding. According to an online calorie calculator, I burned somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000 calories on Saturday. Over the course of STP, I ate: four Clif bars, a packet of Clif energy gel, three Clif Shot Bloks (energy gummy squares), three and a half turkey sandwiches, half a roast beef sandwich, a banana, three watermelon slices, three cookies, three packets of peanut butter crackers, a granola bar, a Twix bar, a Payday bar, two chocolate milks, and a Coke, plus lots and lots of water and water mixed with NUUN electrolyte tablets. When I got to Portland I capped off my day with an IPA and four slices of sausage and pineapple pizza from the very delicious Mississippi Pizza Pub.

I don't think I'll be doing another double century ride any time soon. It takes a serious commitment of time and energy to ride 200 miles, one that left me wiped out on Sunday and into Monday. If I do STP again next year, I'll likely do it as a two-day event with as many friends as I can recruit to join me. A (more) relaxed pace, more time to snap pictures and soak up the experience, and nearly the same level of gluttony seems like an even bigger win than riding the one-day ride. That said, riding Seattle-to-Portland in one day was an incredibly rewarding experience. I'm always pleased when I push myself to new milestones in cycling, and this most definitely qualified.