In case you hadn’t noticed, there was a gigantic cycling event this weekend: For many recreational riders this weekend is the culmination of a lot of hard work–the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (aka the “STP”).
As a bit of counterpoint to the hundreds or thousands of tweets and instagrams that are undoubtedly going off about the STP experience at this very moment, here’s a report on a ride that was none of the above. First off, I naively expected the roads to be deserted of cyclists. En route to the starting point of today’s (small) group ride I saw late-starting STP riders off course. Later, we saw numerous groups in unfamiliar team kits who looked as though they were training for charity rides? Where are these folks on non-STP weekends?
The others in my group were two strong riders from the High Performance Cycling Team–Mark Vohr and Scott “Stoli” Stolnack. Fortunately, I brought the accessory bungee cords along for today’s ride; I needed them to latch on to Stoli for an assist up the hills, and to Mark for an assist on the flats. Our “Not STP” ride circumnavigated the north end of Lake Washington, with frisky bits thrown in southbound on West Lake Sammamish Parkway (where we started to pick up some folks in the draft of our paceline) and around Mercer Island. On any other day the numbers of riders out would have not been a surprise, but today I just couldn’t believe it.
Nice to see so many folks out spinning their wheels!
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