From the Associate Press:

CARAVACA DE LA CRUZ, Spain — American rider Tyler Farrar (of Wenatchee) won the 11th stage of the Spanish Vuelta, and Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde remained the overall leader.

Farrar, who rides for Garmin-Slipstream, finished the 124.3-mile leg featuring several difficult mountain ascents in 5 hours, 11 minutes, 10 seconds.

Belgian rider Philipe Gilbert was second in the same time, ahead of Marco Marcato of Italy.

Valverde finished 14th in the same time to maintain his 7-second overall advantage over Cadel Evans, who was 12th. The Caisse D'Epargne rider's overall time is 45:37:51.

Robert Gesink of the Rabobank team is 36 seconds back in third, while Farrar's American teammate Thomas Danielson trailed by 51 seconds.

Italian rider Ivan Basso remained in the hunt, the Liquigas cyclist trailing Valverde by 53 seconds.

Frank Schleck retired from the race without starting the stage because of a knee injury. The Luxembourg rider, who finished fifth at this year's Tour de France, was running 61st and nearly 24 minutes behind Valverde.

Riders have a rest day Thursday before Friday's 111.4-mile stage from Almeria to Alto de Velefique.

Jeff and I teamed up to write a story about our favorite food stops after a day in the outdoors.

No fine dining here. Just fine burgers, fries, shakes and cherry pie a la mode (Twede's famous pie pictured to the right).

Check it out and see if your favorite was included. If not let us know about your favorite. We'd love to check it out.

(Picture by Drew Perine)

I crossed the finish line of the 30th Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic a couple of hours ago, wet and dirty after 95 miles of cycling in the rain.

As Gary Brooks, one of my riding partners said, “We look like we just finished a mountain bike race.”

Of the 10,000 riders who did this year’s 202-mile STP, the happiest had to be the 2,000 or so who did the entire ride Saturday.

The rest of us spent Sunday morning eating the muddy rooster tails of the cyclists in front of us as we wrapped up our ride.

My usual riding partners bailed on me this year so in May I posted a plea for riders on Facebook and heard back from two friends.

One, Brooks, didn’t even own a bike. The other, Mark Grover of Portland, is so physically fit he doesn’t believe in training. (Earlier this year he ran a 1:50 half marathon without training, and his 22-mile daily bike commute was his only STP training.)

Neither had cycling experience comparable to riding even half an STP.

I figured we might be slow, but at least we’d have fun.

We did have fun, and, as it turns out, our pace was quite respectable (About 18 mph on the open road).

Considering Brooks was on a bike he borrowed from a friend two months early when he started training and Grover was in cross-training shoes, I was quite impressed with both of them.

Our little adventure couldn’t have started more ominously. Grover and his wife, Tina, picked me up early Saturday morning and on our way to meet Brooks a coyote walked in front of the SUV.

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OK, if you're riding the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic tomorrow morning you better check the forecast.

The National Weather Service is calling for highs of 84 in Centralia on Saturday and a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms along the route Sunday.

In other words drink lots of fluids and be prepared for everything.

I'll be riding with a couple of friends doing their first STP (This will be my fourth) and I will post something from Portland ... if I make it that far.

The 30th Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic is Saturday and Sunday which means you can expect to find some Washington roads from Seattle to Longview packed with cyclists.

The 204-mile ride sponsored by Seattle’s Cascade Bicycle Club has been sold out since June 1. The ride will include 10,000 cyclists, more than 2,000 of which will try to finish the ride in one day. Last year participants from 46 states and seven countries rode in the event.

The start line at the University of Washington opens at 4:45 a.m.

While the ride is two days, all of the riders are expected to travel at least as far as Centralia on Sunday.

The Washington Department of Transportation issued a traffic advisory for the event. The advisory asks for drivers to be diligent and constantly aware of cyclists and to be prepared for delays.

Roads in King, Pierce and Thurston counties that are part of the route include Highway 181, Highway 7 in Spanaway, Highway 507 from Spanaway to Centralia. County and city roads in Puyallup are also used for the route.

I'll be riding the event for the third year in a row, this time with a couple of first-timers, and will post dispatch here on Sunday night.

Please feel free to share your stories here too.

According to an article in The Olympian Friday's brush fire in Capitol Forest was arson:

BY MATT BATCHELDOR
The Olympian

A wildfire that started Friday in Capitol State Forest was the result of arson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources said Saturday.

Koshare Lomnicki, a public-information officer for the department, said the agency found evidence of “an incendiary device” near a pile of brush. She didn’t characterize what the device was but said there were not multiple fireworks at the scene.

She said the fire had grown to a dozen acres by Friday night, but firefighters had contained it by creating a perimeter around it.

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I rode the Tour de Pierce on Sunday morning with my brother and some buddies. The ride has a reputation for being super easy, but this year the course was altered to make it more challenging.

That, of course, means hills.

The new course climbed up to Lake Tapps, the Tubbs Road hill in South Prairie and a third hill at Prairie Ridge.

While the relatively short distance (the longest ride is 50 miles) still makes it doable for those who haven't trained it was enough work the legs of those who push themselves.

The course is definitely worth checking out. The Dan Henry's (directional indicators) are still painted on the streets and course maps are available on the ride website.

And if you don't like hills the map shows several shortcuts for avoiding the climbs

Work to repair flood damaged roads on the south side of Mount Rainier National Park is expected to start June 15 in hopes of completing work by July 31, according to a statement released today by acting park superintendent Randy King.

The Nisqually and Stevens Canyon roads were damaged during flooding this winter. The repair project will cost almost $1 million.

Ramrod, the infamous cycling challenge around the mountain is scheduled for July 30. It remains unclear if the race route will have to be changed. According to the Redmond Cycling Club blog the Plan B route will follow Skate Creek Road to Packwood and enter the park near Ohanapecosh.

Here's today's statement from Mount Rainier National Park:

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The Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic seems to sell out earlier and earlier each year, and this year is no exception.

Event officials announced that all 10,000 spots in the ride sold out June 1.

The 205-mile ride is July 11-12. This is the 30th STP.

If you are still trying to get in, you can click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for information on how to buy an entry from somebody who already owns one. There is a $20 transfer fee, but people selling the entries are not allowed to crank up the price (Not that stops some people).

Cyclists might want to roll their way to the Tacoma Farmers’ Market Thursday.

Tacoma Bike will be at the market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of Community Health Day.

The store’s cycle fitter will be on hand doing fitting demos and 10-minute mini-fits. In addition, other store staff will offer free quick tune-ups and technical advice.

The Thursday market is located in downtown Tacoma on Broadway Street, between 9th and 11th streets.

For more about the market.

For more about the bike shop.

I’m blogging from Keystone right now as I wait in line with my son for the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry. Here’s a recommendation for anybody trying to make this run between now and the end of June. Make a reservation at least one week in advance.

I talked with a kayak outfitter this morning in Langley who said he’s been told reservations are filling a week in advance. He ended up getting stuck in Port Townsend recently.

The run is the easiest way to get to the Olympic Peninsula from any point north of Seattle. So with the Hood Canal Bridge closed through June for construction demand is through the roof. Making matters worse, the state ferry service is using a smaller ferry it borrowed from Pierce County. The Steilacoom II used to make the run from Steilacoom to Anderson Island.

Standby isn’t totally out of the question. We’ve been told we have a good shot at the 4:30 ferry. It’s 2:23 right now. A long wait, but we get to play on the beach for a couple hours. And that beats a long drive almost any day.

To make reservations:
Visit wsdot.wa.gov/ferries
Call 877-595-4222
Or from your cell dial 511

Also visit the website for info on a special Edmonds to Port Towsend run on the weekends.

Two quick items for you guys:

- First, off Whistler's Mountain Bike park opens Saturday. Don't forget your skis because you can still ski this time of year too.

- Second, something went haywire last night putting together The News Tribune's SoundLife section. If you started reading my story on tips for keeping you smoothies healthy, you may have noticed that most of the story is missing from the paper. Not sure what happened, but if you want some tips for choosing smoothies that won't sabotage your diet check out the FULL STORY here.

Click below to read the announcement from Whistler Blackcomb.

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