The first organized ride that I ever rode in was the Seattle to Portland (STP) ride. STP is a 204 mile ride that goes from Seattle Washington to Portland Oregon. You have the option of doing the entire distance in one day or riding about half the distance (to Centralia college) one day and finishing the next day. After starting the ride, I found out how ill-prepared and inexperienced I was. A few of my hard-learned experiences were:
- I carried way too much stuff on my bike. Before the ride, I bought a rear rack that mounted to the seat post. On that rack I had a large bag that probably had enough tools to overhaul the bike. In addition, I carried quite a bit of food, even though the STP has regular stops for food and water, and my wife was following along in our car stopping at all of them.
- I didn’t do enough training before the ride. My lack of training showed up halfway through day one. The first 50 or so miles were fairly comfortable. The rest were drudgery. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to finish the ride. Two or three days before riding in this event I rode my longest distance ever - about 54 miles. I think my total training time was about 2 - 3 weeks, riding about 2 or 3 times each week.
- The bike I rode was an older but hardly used Nishiki International road bike that was brand new in 1987. My wife kept telling me that It needed new tires, however, I chose not to listen. On one of my training rides while I was waiting at a traffic light the front tire blew out through the sidewall. At that point it was obvious she was right, so when I started the STP I started it with brand new Gatorskin tires.
Hopefully this site can help other cyclists avoid experiences like mine by providing information to help them be successful. I’m still a bicyclist in training.
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