Ten thousand bicycle riders streamed out of Seattle on Saturday for Portland as the 30th annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic got underway.
Organized by the Cascade Bicycle Club, the 202-mile bike ride drew 500 more cyclists than last year. Cascade capped registrations at 10,000; the ride sold out on June 1.
STP is a pick-your-own-pace recreational ride, with participants choosing either to stop in the midway towns of Centralia or Chehalis or continuing into Holladay Park in Portland. The first STP back in 1979, however, was a time trial race between the Seattle and Portland city halls.
Two riders from that first STP are riding the course this weekend — Jerry Baker, 67, of Seattle and Paul Wantzellius, 60, of Maple Valley. Fifty-one cyclists have completed 20 STPs; 321 cyclists have completed 10.
The cyclists come from 46 states. Besides the US and Puerto Rico, cyclists are on the road here from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, and Sweden. The ratio of men to women is 72/28.
The oldest registered rider this year is 87 years old; the youngest is 2 years, 4 months.
I shot these pictures this morning along Lake Washington Boulevard between 7 and 8 a.m. What's amazing is that some cyclists had already been on the road for two or three hours already.
If you can believe Twitter tweets, and I'm sure you can, some folks were pulling into Centralia about 10 a.m., while others were only at the 50-mile mark by then. That's a 50-mile stretch of road covered in bicycles. I'd love to see that from the air.
Good luck to everyone this weekend!
Sunday update: Sunday's forecast for nasty weather are holding true. STP riders report thunder and showers at time along the route with some chilly temperatures.
Check out the STP Twitters in upper right corner of page.
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