# Seattle to Portland... how much climbing?



## urnicus

I am interested in doing the Seattle to Portland ride in July. I am extremely new to road biking.... I have ridden my new bike all of 5 times. 

I am trying to figure out what I need to do to be prepared to not just finish, but enjoy the STP. I plan on doing it in 2 days, not the 1 day option.

As I look at doing the ride, my main concern is how much climbing there is. Where I live it is relatively flat, so my concern is being prepared for the climbing.

Does anyone know how many vertical feet the climbs are on each day?

I would love to see one of those GPS (w/ altitude) printouts of the ride if anyone has one.

Thanks!


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## bigbill

I did the one day version this past year and according to Garmin, there was 4995 feet of total climbing. The course is rolling hills for about 2/3 of the way. The only sustained climb is around Puyallup and it is about 42 miles in. There is a rest stop around mile 45. Don't sweat the climbs, rolling hills make the elevation gain add up. To prepare, start early in the season by working your way up in distances. The Rhody Ride in Port Townsend is a nice early season metric century. The Peninsula Century in Gig Harbor is a real killer if you choose to do the 100 (actually 103) miles. The long loop has 7700 feet of climbing. The Flying Wheels century in Redmond is a nice final exam. It is 100 miles with approximately the same amount of climbing as STP.


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## rcnute

You don't need to train for climbing, just distance. It's quite doable. I've done the one-day for three years in a row; might do it again this year. (I suspect Bill's time would put me to shame.) The rollers on the last third of the ride do get old quick by that point, but it's more of a mental thing then.

Oh, and if you do it in two days I think you'll have lots of fun while at the same time having performed a major accomplishment, especially if you're new. 

Check out the message boards on the Cascade Bicycle Club website. Tons o' tips for riding STP.


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## cycleaddict

*I've done the STP many, many times and for people*

doing it in two days, I have one important piece of advice and if you act on it you will thank me. My advice is to ride as far as you can the first day, say 160 miles to Longview or Kelso (not actually on the route but close enough and one can find hotels here). That way, when you wake up with a sore ass and tired muscles on Sunday morning, you don't have a ton of miles facing you. You will get to Portland in much better spirits and ready to enjoy some time in the park and in the beer garden as you watch the poor dummies crossing the finish line hours later after having stopped half way in Centralia for the night.
Good luck and have fun.


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## hoehnt

I wonder how many tickets are left. Last year it sold out.


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## urnicus

hoehnt said:


> I wonder how many tickets are left. Last year it sold out.


Registration (for non Cascade club members) does not begin until Feb 1st.

Last year it sold out in June.... according to the website.


Anyone have an idea of how many hours it should take? What kind of pace I should be able to keep? 

I am just trying to get an idea of where I need to be to enjoy doing this ride.


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## bigbill

hoehnt said:


> I wonder how many tickets are left. Last year it sold out.


I registered at the bike expo. It was really easy one stop shopping. I had a low number (<200) but they save a block of numbers for the expo.


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## bigbill

urnicus said:


> Registration (for non Cascade club members) does not begin until Feb 1st.
> 
> Last year it sold out in June.... according to the website.
> 
> 
> Anyone have an idea of how many hours it should take? What kind of pace I should be able to keep?
> 
> I am just trying to get an idea of where I need to be to enjoy doing this ride.



You don't really enjoy a double century, you accomplish it. 16-17 mph means six hours each day. The key to a "fun" century is being comfortable in a group. To get comfortable, do group rides and centuries so that you reach your comfort level being close to other cyclists. Sitting a foot or so behind another rider of similar size can conserve 30% of your effort. A rotating paceline of good riders can result in a 1-2 mph increase in average speed for the same effort as riding alone. 

I prepared for the STP and I used to race. I finished the one day version in 10:15 with an average of 19.8mph. I probably could have broken ten hours but I spent the last 20 miles riding with a guy who didn't look so good (heat exhaustion). This year, I will break 10 hours. The 2008 version was abnormally hot with a tailwind. It was 100 degrees in Rainier, OR. Typically it is in the 80's with a slight headwind. When I did it in 1997, it was 44 degrees and raining sideways.


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## rcnute

urnicus said:


> Registration (for non Cascade club members) does not begin until Feb 1st.
> 
> Last year it sold out in June.... according to the website.
> 
> 
> Anyone have an idea of how many hours it should take? What kind of pace I should be able to keep?
> 
> I am just trying to get an idea of where I need to be to enjoy doing this ride.


Cascade has a training program on the website if you want to use it.

If you're going to do it in two days you have plenty of time each day.

If you're going to do it in one day, don't go hard the first 100. I did that in 5.5 hours my first year (fast for me, anyway) and paid for it afterwards.


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## tyro

bigbill said:


> I did the one day version this past year and according to Garmin, there was 4995 feet of total climbing. The course is rolling hills for about 2/3 of the way. The only sustained climb is around Puyallup and it is about 42 miles in. There is a rest stop around mile 45. Don't sweat the climbs, rolling hills make the elevation gain add up. To prepare, start early in the season by working your way up in distances. The Rhody Ride in Port Townsend is a nice early season metric century. The Peninsula Century in Gig Harbor is a real killer if you choose to do the 100 (actually 103) miles. The long loop has 7700 feet of climbing. The Flying Wheels century in Redmond is a nice final exam. It is 100 miles with approximately the same amount of climbing as STP.


How did you get your Garmin battery to last the whole ride? Mine died about mile 185, which happened to coincide with my demise as well. I ended up dehydrated and not feeling well at all. I did not properly hydrate. That Nuun crap that they gave out at the first rest stop did a major number on my belly. I'm bringing my own stuff this year. I'm riding it with a few buddies and our wives are driving support, which should be nice.

I only started riding the road in June of last year and did Flying Wheels. It was an EXTREMELY nice day to be on a bike. I'll look into the other ones you listed too. Thanks for the info.


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## brujenn

Hey Bill - I've been thinking about organizing a Gorge ride for sometime late spring. Maybe 2 groups: 1 for racers and fast people, and 1 for me and who ever wants to take pictures along the way. You could take the first group.


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## bigbill

brujenn said:


> Hey Bill - I've been thinking about organizing a Gorge ride for sometime late spring. Maybe 2 groups: 1 for racers and fast people, and 1 for me and who ever wants to take pictures along the way. You could take the first group.


I'll look at my schedule and see what weekends I am available. I have some travel to do this spring and certainly don't want to miss Cooper's ride.


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## tyro

brujenn said:


> Hey Bill - I've been thinking about organizing a Gorge ride for sometime late spring. Maybe 2 groups: 1 for racers and fast people, and 1 for me and who ever wants to take pictures along the way. You could take the first group.


I'm game for this. I'm not sure which group I'd be in. It depends on how you define "fast".


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## bigbill

tyro said:


> How did you get your Garmin battery to last the whole ride? Mine died about mile 185, which happened to coincide with my demise as well.
> 
> I only started riding the road in June of last year and did Flying Wheels. It was an EXTREMELY nice day to be on a bike. I'll look into the other ones you listed too. Thanks for the info.



I used a Energizer Energi cell phone charger. You can get the model that includes a mini-usb plug. It takes two AA batteries (included) and the charging symbol stayed lit for the entire ride. At the end I unplugged the charger and my Garmin was still fully charged. I taped the Energi under my handlebars and ran the cord around the stem to plug it in. 

Flying wheels was a blast last year. I got to meet another forumite (kreger) while riding in a pack. A guy in front of me grabbed his brakes for no apparent reason for the umpteenth time so I just ripped him a new one. A guy riding next to me saw my RBR kit and said "you must be bigbill".


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## tyro

bigbill said:


> I used a Energizer Energi cell phone charger. You can get the model that includes a mini-usb plug. It takes two AA batteries (included) and the charging symbol stayed lit for the entire ride. At the end I unplugged the charger and my Garmin was still fully charged. I taped the Energi under my handlebars and ran the cord around the stem to plug it in.
> 
> Flying wheels was a blast last year. I got to meet another forumite (kreger) while riding in a pack. A guy in front of me grabbed his brakes for no apparent reason for the umpteenth time so I just ripped him a new one. A guy riding next to me saw my RBR kit and said "you must be bigbill".


Good idea. I did not think there was a way to use an external power source. 

I agree about the brake happy riders. For me, STP was worse than FW. There were people skidding off the road into ditches at STP. One guy left in an ambulance, all skinned up and bleeding. People just don't possess the simple concepts necessary to ride in a paceline. Anything you do towards the front of the group become exponentially amplified and dangerous as you move backwards in the line. There was a guy in front of me that had a bottle ejected on that big red bridge outside of Longview. He just grabbed a handful of both brakes and stopped to walk back and get them. Wow! They tell you that the most dangerous thing about big group rides is the other riders. Boy are they right.


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## bigbill

tyro said:


> Good idea. I did not think there was a way to use an external power source.
> 
> I agree about the brake happy riders. For me, STP was worse than FW. There were people skidding off the road into ditches at STP. One guy left in an ambulance, all skinned up and bleeding. People just don't possess the simple concepts necessary to ride in a paceline. Anything you do towards the front of the group become exponentially amplified and dangerous as you move backwards in the line. There was a guy in front of me that had a bottle ejected on that big red bridge outside of Longview. He just grabbed a handful of both brakes and stopped to walk back and get them. Wow! They tell you that the most dangerous thing about big group rides is the other riders. Boy are they right.


I rode to the second rest stop around mile 44 before I stopped to get ahead of the squirrels. The hill around Puyallup is good for getting rid of the weak. I got in with a good group of 7-8 riders and we stayed together until Longview. At Centralia (100 mile), we were at 4:50 total time but it got slower after Longview due to the heat. I got shelled off the back around Rainier and rode with one other guy the rest of the way to Portland. I had gone so fast in the first 140 miles that I ended up in the no mans land of riders. There was a huge gap behind us so we pretty much had the road to ourselves for the last 30 or so miles. Everyone I rode with after mile 44 was a good bike handler so it was relatively stress free. We had a "surger" in the group for a while who would pick up the pace 3-4 mph when he was on the front, but he blew up near Longview and we didn't see him again. I plan on doing it again this year, its been long enough that I think it was fun.


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## tyro

bigbill said:


> I rode to the second rest stop around mile 44 before I stopped to get ahead of the squirrels. The hill around Puyallup is good for getting rid of the weak. I got in with a good group of 7-8 riders and we stayed together until Longview. At Centralia (100 mile), we were at 4:50 total time but it got slower after Longview due to the heat. I got shelled off the back around Rainier and rode with one other guy the rest of the way to Portland. I had gone so fast in the first 140 miles that I ended up in the no mans land of riders. There was a huge gap behind us so we pretty much had the road to ourselves for the last 30 or so miles. Everyone I rode with after mile 44 was a good bike handler so it was relatively stress free. We had a "surger" in the group for a while who would pick up the pace 3-4 mph when he was on the front, but he blew up near Longview and we didn't see him again. I plan on doing it again this year, its been long enough that I think it was fun.


I was with two friends and we didn't start until a little bit late. We took it pretty easy getting to Centralia and once we got there it was a war zone. This year my wife and a friend are going to drive support so we can bypass a lot of the madness of the rest stops. That way we can pick exactly what we want to eat and such.

Man, that is a smoking time to Centralia and overall.  Are you on EPO or something?!  Seriously, well done. 

I know what you mean about being in no man's land. A buddy of mine and I did the High Pass Challenge this past year and ended up in the same position at the end. Now *that *was a nice day! I totally recommend that ride if you like to climb. The views were unbelievable. 

I love your comment, _"I plan on doing it again this year, its been long enough that I think it was fun."_ I totally understand what you are saying.


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## GerryR

I'm doing the STP with a friend from Spokane and we're riding to Winlock Saturday. Our wives are driving and we found a B&B in Winlock that's planning to fix dinner for us Saturday night, probably spaghetti. Winlock looks to be about 20 miles south of Centralia. And thanks for the tip about riding about 40 miles before taking the first break.


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## MisterAngular

bigbill said:


> I plan on doing it again this year, its been long enough that I think it was fun.


Exactly! I did it for the first (and only) time in 2007 and afterward it was like, "WTF was I thinking?"

Had other commitments last year, but I'm registered now for the 2009 STP. I keep thinking I "should" do it in a single day this time, but not so sure I'm up for it. Not the strongest rider out there... don't even _want_ to know how many watts per kg I'm putting out.  

(OK... that last statement was a bald-faced lie.)


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