Bicycling enthusiasts trying to register on Monday for a spot in Levi Leipheimer's King Ridge GranFondo in Santa Rosa found themselves shut out of the online registration process for hours.
It was the second time recently that the sheer volume of traffic for online registration for a bike ride overwhelmed the computer servers, grinding the process to a virtual halt.
Last Monday, persons trying to register for the Seattle-based Cascade Bicycle Club's slate of 2011 bike rides were continually kicked off the website. Some valiantly tried to get in for up to four hours, only to find out that the most sought-after ride — Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party — had already sold out.
GranFondo
Monday's registration for King Ridge GranFondo was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. The sudden spike in traffic “mirrored a denial of service attack and the hosting companies shut down those sites,” Greg Fisher, editor of Bike Monkey magazine, which is organizing the event, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
After two hours, the organizers decided to move registration to another group of servers, which weren't expected to be ready for the traffic until 4 p.m. About 350 were initially able to register in the morning.
This year, Levi's GranFondo will expand to 7,500 cyclists. It is scheduled for Oct. 1.
The ride is a fund-raiser for the LiveStrong Foundation, the Forget Me Not Farm, West County community services, and the cost to Santa Rosa of hosting the first stage of the 2012 Tour of California.
The hometown of RadioShack cyclist Leipheimer recently committed itself to pay $580,000 for the right. The Tour is not visiting Santa Rosa in 2011.
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