Comments on: Reminiscing on STPs Past

By: blueneck

blueneck — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:01:05 +0000

Yet another for 2007; we rode for the Michael Miyauchi Foundation (http://www.michaelmfoundation.org/)

By: blueneck

blueneck — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:24:18 +0000

Here’s some more…
2007 – I think this was our yellow jersey year too; a precursor to 2009. I also think this was the year we picked up an anonymous rider who enjoyed our famous support. He stayed with us almost into Portland.
2008 – We had our youngest and first female rider on tandem, part of a first father-daughter team. Another year dominated by the famous “I want that chicken” KOM rider. Our young riders were getting stronger every year!
2009 – Probably the biggest contingent of riders yet – 19 or 20. One guy rode part way with us and brought a massage chair and on the long bike trail, he broke out his time trial bike. Another guy had the luxury of drafting off of him down the trail, listening to the peculiar gear changes and avoiding crashes. First year that we had some serious rain. Actually there were two crashes.
(KOM = king of the mountain, a reference to a classification in the Tour de France)

By: blueneck

blueneck — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:42:14 +0000

Many memories. On the first one we faced the great unknown, “Could we do it?” We missed one guy, “Howdy-do Boys”, but we had our paceline leader. We also had a rider on a 40lb bike tricked out commuter bike. I don’t know how he did it. We had one fall and a few flats – I flatted twice but that’s because I didn’t pay attention to the first flat. One guy lost a cleat screw and another had to replace a tire liner. It felt really good to get to the finish and we enjoyed a multi-family overnight at the end.
STP 2006 – about the same size group, but some new riders and we had our own support. Our support was amazing; we ate well and didn’t have to wait in line for food. A couple of flats – I don’t remember any crashes.
STP 2007 – a little bigger group with some younger, stronger riders, a tandem and our support. I remember the crazy chase up “The Hill” with one guy passing me saying, “I want that chicken” referring to our famous support. He was our new KOM rider. One crash and a couple of flats.
STP 2008 – One of our younger riders rode up “The Hill” and just kept going. We didn’t see him at the regroup at the top of “The Hill” so we frantically looked for him; some of us even rode back down “The Hill”. When he was finally contacted via cell phone, he was told he should have waited for us at the top of “The Hill”. His reply, “What Hill?” One guy was on a folding bike – he kept a strong pace and some cramps made sure I stayed behind him until I recovered. One crash and a flat; I think it was while the bike was just sitting there and all of a sudden we heard the air come out.
STP 2009 – We had our official jerseys and four father-son riders. One crash and a flat early on. We had to engineer a fix using an adhesive patch. I have more…