The cycling blog is done, but blogging about cycling will continue.

Where?

Good Question.

The new Adventure Guys blog.

In this new blog, Adventure editor Jeffrey P. Mayor and I will write about our adventures, misadventures and insights in the outdoors, keep you up to date on the latest news and answer your questions.

Talk to you over there,
Craig Hill

If you haven't noticed, this blog has been retired. The plan was for this cycling blog to run for the duration of our STP Project, which painfully concluded in July.

But stay tuned. A new blog from the Adventure team is coming soon.

Thanks for reading,
Craig Hill

I got an e-mail this morning from a reader who had a much more positive experience than I did making the 204.5-mile pedal from Seattle to Portland. I thought I'd share it with you to let you its not all flat tires and wipeouts if you want to try this next year:

Craig,

Sorry to hear about your STP experience. Mine was almost the opposite. My training sounds about the same as yours. I was new to cycling this year and did this as a committment after having arthroscopic hip surgery in late October (at the age of 36). I started in March and trained with a buddy who has done a few STPs and some other races (Flying Wheels 100, MS150, RSVP) and are pacing was similar. He is a much stronger rider than I am, but I grew up being a long distance runner so I knew I would have the mind set to be able to focus and get into grooves while riding. We did some good hill training, so I felt prepared for the hills that awaited.

=> Read more!

The STP Project slideshow is up and running online tonight. The pictures are a little out of order, but we'll work on fixing that.

The story on our day of mishaps and bad luck follows in tomorrow's Adventure section.

Click here to watch the slide show.

My body on Saturday night around 7 PM quoted Dirty Harry again and said “Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” I had an answer for it after the crazy day our team experienced. I said “NO.” Kenny was done due to a fever, and my body was just done. We decided to stop with 38 miles to go. The question that was asked by everyone was - Could have you finished the ride? After spending a night in the hospital last year, I never asked myself that question. Here were the questions I did ask myself and answers that went through my mind:

Q - What would best serve my wife and kids?

A – Stopping – No more trips to ER proving I can do it.

Q – What is my body telling me?

A – GET OFF THE BIKE!!!!!!

Q – What does the team need?

A – To not wait for me to recuperate and to get their butts to Portland.

Q - How about getting some sleep, water, and food plus come back on Sunday to finish?

A – Sounds like a plan.

As we loaded our bikes into Kenny's truck and headed to Portland, I thought about finishing the ride on Sunday. I woke up on Sunday morning, and asked my wife. She said, “I thought you might want to finish.” I called Kenny and asked if he wanted to go, “No, I still don’t feel right.”
Craig gave me, Russ, and Scott a ride out to the spot I stopped. These guys and our families were highly supportive because this meant a whole change in plans. The moms on the team (5 families – 18 people) had to do some juggling of the schedule to make it work. Russ and Scott took their tender spots and sore muscles and helped me finish the ride. We rode the last 38 miles in around 2 hours and 15 minutes. I felt great getting over the finish line and buying my STP finisher shirt.

As I sit here Monday morning, I am glad I finished. I don’t feel any regrets having done STP in 2 days. As we look to maybe riding it again, I doubt I will ever attempt to do STP in one day. I did STP twice in 1 day, and I have more fun doing STP over 2 days.

I want to thank the team for all their work over the past four months. They worked their butts off getting in shape for the ride. The fun we have as we razz each other and bike together is either highly dysfunctional or highly intelligent;
only Dr. Phil or Oprah could help us figure it out.
The nicknames piled up this year – Double Dutch, MC Hammer, Deep Throat, Flowmax, Muffin Top, Barbie, Cialis, and the Yankees.

I want to thank our wives and families for all their support on both days of the ride. Keeping 8 kids between the ages of 6 and 13 busy is a miracle while their husbands spend a whole day riding their bikes. Thank you to our families who get excited about us finishing, and the hotel pool.

I am thankful for Craig Hill for the risk he took in going with four guys he didn’t know to attempt training and riding with them over four months. He kept his journalist distance while meshing with the team. I want to thank him for the opportunity he gave me to write on the blog which fulfilled a
life dream of writing something for public consumption. His boss has given him the assignment to ride next years STP in 2 days. If he is looking for a group to ride STP, I have an idea of some guys who would love to ride it with him.

Be safe and have fun riding - Rick B

As I took Rick Beitelspacher, Russ Meyers and Scott Wagar back to Deer Island, Ore., this morning so Beitelspacher could finish the ride, we noticed a man being loaded into a cop car.

We later learned he'd hit a cyclists causing a three-bike pileup.
Gerald Marvin, 24, of Seattle, suffered serious injuries. He is reportedly in fair condition.
Daniel B. Whittlinger, 40, of Portland was arrested on charges of felony hit and run, Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants and a parole violation.

Here's a link to a story on KOMO's website.

My apologies for not updating this sooner, but I’ve been icing my legs (and sleeping).
The STP Project was mostly successful Saturday despite a litany of physical and mechanical problems.
Russ Meyers, Kenny Espinoza, Rick Beitelspacher, Scott Wagar and I left Seattle about 5:15 a.m. Saturday morning. Over the next 204.5 miles very few hours went by without something happening to slow us down.

The short list:
* Kenny had a cold and developed a fever.
* Rick broke his shoe.
* Rick and Russ took a tumble when the cyclists in front of them hit the brakes abruptly.
* I got a flat
* Kenny’s derailleur broke,
* I got another flat
* The weather topped 90 leaving me dehydrated and short on energy
* Kenny started getting really sick.
* I got a third flat 8 miles from the finish.

“In five years of training rides, we haven’t had as much go wrong as we did Saturday,” Beitelspacher said. “But that’s just the way the ride came to us this year.”
When it was all said and done, Meyers and Wagar pulled me to the finish line. We got there at 9:30 p.m., by far the latest Scott and Russ have ever finished.
Not feeling well, Kenny and Bietelspacher called it a day in Deer Island, Ore., 36.5 miles from the finish line. They weren't the only ones. I saw several cyclists loading their bikes into to cars during the final stretch. Some weren't so wise. One woman collapsed at the finish about 10 p.m. and emergency workers had to wrap her in a blanket and treat her for whatever damaged she'd inflicted upon herself.
Both Rick and Kenny were waiting at the finish line when we rolled in.
This morning, I drove Beitelspacher back to Deer Island so he could finish the ride with the two-day riders. Meyers and Wagar rode with him for a staggering 241 miles in 32 hours.
Still sick, Kenny, who already has a one-day STP under his belt, was content not forcing the issue. He and I waited at the finish line with all the wives and kids as Beitelspacher finished.
Be sure to read Thursday’s Adventure section for more on what it’s like to ride a double century when everything goes wrong.