A bit under the radar compared to other local events, the Redmond Cycling Club‘s (RCC) Seattle to Spokane (S2S) endurance event was held over the weekend with 14 riders leaving Lake City at 2:00 AM. (That start time might be enough to dissuade me…) S2S covers ~283 miles from the Seattle area to Spokane, and is similar to the RCC’s Cannonball except that it has a much more difficult start up and over US Highway 2, with total climbing over 12,000 feet (according to RCC).
This year’s first finisher was Brian Ecker with an average speed of just over 20 mph. A tandem ridden by John Cacabelos and Margareta Germeaux finished second with an average speed of about 19.5 mph.
Complete Results:
Name: Time
Ecker, Brian: 14H08
Cacabelos, John & Germeaux Margareta: 14H33 (Tandem; possible new tandem record)
Brown, Edward: 18H06
Scott, Jeff: 18H17 (Unsupported)
Lee, Mark: 19H45
Kuijper, Joe: 19H56
Rhode, Mark: 20H42
Naucler, Scott: 20H57
Rowley, John: 21H56
Gladish, Dave: 22H19
McCann, Shaughnessy: 25H18
Neugebauer, John: 30H25
Matson, Tera: DNF – 22h30
In a post-race interview Brian said he encountered headwinds and crosswinds virtually the entire ride and only got a tailwind during the final hour. Which makes his average speed all the more impressive. Brian also shared some of his stats that put his effort into context:
Ride time: 13:58
Elapsed time: 14:08
Calories burned: 11,116
Avg watts: 244
Stevens Pass: 51:00 310w 10.2mi
Orondo Grade: 37:00 290w 6.4mi
Last hour: 195w 25.5mph avg (yeah tailwind!)
Brian’s next big event is the Furnace Creek 508 on Saturday October 8.
Of course, events like this are impossible without the selfless contributions of the volunteers who make it happen. This year’s S2S was possible because of Duane Wright, Tom Killion, Janet Heineck, and finish line volunteer extraordinaire Eric Vigoren.
