STP 2009

Christian and I rode STP this year after a hiatus of a couple years. Rather than the usual shots of people on bikes here’s one of us enjoying one of our many food breaks.

The ride itself was a lot of fun. It was a contrast in weather, Saturday was sunny for the whole day, hitting the high 80’s as we rode to the midway stop at Centralia. Sunday started with thunder,lightning and hail then eased off to typical Irish drizzle and pleasant cool riding conditions before torrential rain just after we finished in Portland.

But I get ahead of myself. Christian and I started off at 7am on Saturday after meeting at the start line. Waves of people went off every 10 mins (to space out the 10,000 participants) and we were never out of sight of riders for the whole event. It never really felt crowded on the road but the official food stops got a bit overwhelmed at some points on Day 1. It was very reminiscent of PBP, sans rain, with large lines of people at the food stops and bikes every where. Not quite as much sleep deprivation in evidence though and nary a curled up body in a bivy sack under any bushes.

We had a good ride down to Centralia (the picture above is about 15 miles from the half way point). We arrived at the camp site to meet Susan and the kids and Jennifer and set up tents. Then it was time to hang out in tent city and relax. My initial concerns that the kids might not get to sleep because of all the possibly rowdy bikers in tents all around soon turned to how to keep the kids from waking up all the same, now comatose, riders who had crashed without a sound.

We woke to the sound of torrential rain and thunder and lightning. Christian reckoned he’d be OK on his carbon bike as long as he stayed away from my all steel ride. Hummm. The rain eased off and after abandoning the long line for breakfast and enjoying some of Susan’s muffins instead we headed off to Portland.

Initial groans of discomfort soon eased and we rode from one food opportunity to the next, enjoying egg/bacon sandwiches, banana bread, hot dogs, and the occasional can of caffeinated beverage along the way. We made good time and got into a nice rhythm of alternating pulls, occasionally latching on to other groups if they were going at a compatible pace.

We arrived at Portland to our cheering families and then huddled under a tree while the rain came down. We finished with a lot more people this time as we were a couple of hours earlier than in 2006. There was more of a buzz at the finish despite the rain.

All in all a fun two days and great to be out riding with Christian again.