Seattle to Portland Ride Reports--put 'em here!
Chris and I DID actually do the STP in one day on Saturday on our tandem. Yeeha! Ow.
We crossed the start line somewhere around 4 am or a little after (forgot to actually look at our watches). We found a riding buddy from San Jose early on who liked our pace and stuck with us for 30 miles or so, a really nice guy named Andy. Had done lots of other rides, was a Team in Training guy. Eventually he joined a paceline and was gone.
The first 100 miles were great, actually. With the exception of one long hill, they are mostly flat. And the weather couldn’t have been better for our purposes: 60s with a cloud cover till about mile 100, and a slight tailwind as well—unusual for us, since the prevailing winds here are often southeasterly. Susan Otcenas, oddly enough we matched your one-day tandem time for the first 100 miles, getting to the Centralia stop at 11:00 am, with a 16.7 average.
After about mile 50, I stopped at most of the pee stops, having a very small bladder that also seems to have the magical ability to actually multiple water molecules once they get inside. It was just stop-pee-go, an advantage to being a one-day rider, since you miss the 15-20 minute Porta-potty lines that the 6,000 or so second-day riders suffer with.
We got a front flat at mile 106, stopped to fix that. Then...the rollers started. Funny, I loved that section last year, when we did it in two days, and started the rollers on the second day with fresh legs. This year, I still found the scenery beautiful—from about mile 110 to mile 150—but man, it’s a lot harder to do rolling hills when you have 110-mile legs! Then we got a front flat. Our average slowed to 16.4, and by mile 170 or so, about 16.1. Also, the sun came out from behind the clouds, so started having to put on the funny bandana-type thing soaked with water under our helmets. By the way, we also did start taking one Endurolyte capsule an hour at that point—we decided to risk doing a totally new thing by taking them against the surer risk of getting overheated. Neither of us had a bad reaction to the capsules, luckily, and took them for the next six hours or so.
Then we got a stiff chain link, so had to stop and fiddle with that. Also, in Longview, we saw a SCARY car-bike accident. Several riders not far in front of us got caught between one car and a car behind it that was being towed by a strap. The cars were turning left out of a lot on our side of the street. The cars didn’t see the riders and the riders didn’t see the strap. Two riders fell and one was half under the car, while the drivers took a few seconds to figure out what had happened and to stop. Neither was more than scraped, I think, but it was an awful sight. And the drivers were both pretty freaked out too. One of the riders was carrying his helmet on his handlebars rather than his head when this all happened. Not a candidate for rocket science school.
The last 50 miles or so were flatter but on the not-very-friendly Route 30 that goes to Portland. We did okay right up until 8 miles before the finish line when we got—yeah!—a rear flat. Got lots of rueful, sympathetic smiles from riders who went past us at this point while we fixed it. Ugh! What a time to get a flat, when you’re so close and so tired. So we didn’t actually get to the finish line until about 9:50 pm. Final total average speed about 15.7, with 13 hours 45 minutes on the bike. Would have been nice to get in earlier, but, you know---we DID IT! And even though the Finish Line Festival closed at 9 pm, Cascade Bicycle Club still had volunteers there to hand out One-Day Rider badges, AND kids and adults cheering people across the finish line. Don’t ask me why, but the kids were just cheering everyone wildly as they came in and it was just delightful. Call me a cornball, but I liked it. I almost cried, just like last year, but didn’t. Too tired and too hungry!!
This ride ends in a park across the street from a Doubletree Hotel in Portland. We made room reservations many months ago when we decided to try for the one-day. They have a big underground garage-type space where they have a bike corral and where the bags are delivered. We dropped our bike, got our bag, exchanged a few quips with the Cascade Bike Club guy guarding the area, marched into the hotel, checked in, ordered room service, took showers, and got into bed. What a brilliant thing, to be able to just go upstairs to a really nice room. We ate their buffet brunch this morning, spent a hour or so at the Finish Line Festival buying ride shirts and watching two-day riders come in. It really is COOL to watch other riders come in. They are so happy and it is such an achievement. Spouses, parents, kids, and dogs come to meet the riders, and it’s just a ton of fun to watch.
We are thrilled that we were actually able to do it in one day this year. We are also really appreciative of what a well organized and supported ride this is. On to Ummelina's Spa this morning for massage and jetted bath.
Congrats to all other STPers! Let us hear about your rides.
Managing rolling hills when you're tired
Chris and I still have a lot to learn about tandem technique, especially for hill climbing. That is, there are several significant hills on our normal training route, and we've gotten much better at them. But there's knowledge out there we need to tap, still. Someone on TE posted a link on how to climb different KINDS of hills, and I looked at it Sunday night. It was very cool. The guy talked about convex vs. concave hills, and connected hills like these rollers, and mountains, and how each kind had to be approached differently and why. Very useful. Wish there was tandem-specific training out there somewhere.
Anyway, most of STP is a nice ride, especially the rollers. But wish I'd read that hill link a week ago! Isn't it always the way?
