STP 2026

What is STP

STP is a bit of a legend in the Seattle biking community. It stands for Seattle to Portland and is an epic 206 mile ride hosted by Cascade Bicycle club. It's the kind of thing where if you're a cyclist in the area and you haven't done the ride, I would look at you kind of funny.

STP 2025

STP 2026 was a great experience. But to start telling the story we have to go back to STP 2025. 2025 was my first year doing the ride. I was highly encouraged by my good friend Drew. Drew is a much better cyclist than I am. His fitness is incomprehensible to me and he bikes about 12,000 miles a year. So needless to say embarking on a ride like this with him is a bit foreboding. It was me, him, and about 3 other riders who showed up to the start intending to ride together. We had the ambitious goal of 9 hours rolling time.

I won't go too in depth on the details of this ride as the focus of this post is 2026. But here's the high level summary. First 50 miles super fun super fast, I was pulling the draft for a lot of this. Around 50 miles in cramps started creeping in. For the next 50 miles my cramps intensified and from mile 100-206 I was cramping pretty bad. I should also shout out a couple guys we rode with. There's John who got dropped twice, but twice managed to solo chase down Drew, Andy and myself, and then there's Andy, who I think was in his 50s but looked like he was in his 40s and rode like he was in his 20s. A retired racer whose family in Portland was confused when he showed up a couple hours before he told them to expect them. One of the best things about STP is the people you meet, when you're in a fast group it is very common for you to ride by other groups and a couple of their fast guys might join you. Andy was one of these guys and stuck with us to the end.

So the high level overview of 2025 - super fun, great people, plagued by cramps. We didn't hit our 9 hour goal with a rolling time of 9:09:09. We also admittedly kind of let off the gas in the second half when the goal looked tough and started chilling at rest stops for longer than we intended leading to elapsed time of 10:13:22. That being said we did cross the line first, Drew threw first me on his wheel (this is how we rode the entire second half - not a joke. Shout out Drew).

STP 2026

Now we can get back to STP 2026. With a bit more experience under my belt, and a bit less training miles under Drew's, I was looking forward to getting to it again. Our goal was the same, break 9 hours rolling, but I had added 2 additional goals. Avoid cramps and actually contribute in the second half. I didn't want to be skipping any pulls on the front.

Training & Fueling

Training was about the same as the previous year, I am a bike commuter so miles stack up pretty well for me. In 2025 I had a big ride to Port Angeles and then back, which was mirrored by a ride to Friday Harbor and back in 2026. I also threw in a thoughtful 70 miler at goal race power in 2026 which was nice as it felt pretty good. To address cramps I knew I needed to fuel better on the bike. I ended up going for 15 carbs every 10 minutes. This is 2 shot blocks, one rice krispy treat, or a honey stinger gu (that one's a bit more than 15 so I had those when I was hurting). I also knew I needed to up my electrolytes so I brought along a huge 15,000 milligrams of sodium along with similarly large potassium and magnesium. The other big change is we were coming in with a much larger group. I think Drew put together a chat of about 8 guys. I didn't know any of them but could tell by how they communicated that they were serious cyclists and I was correct.

The Group

If you're not aware, in cycling having a large group is hugely beneficial as your main enemy is drag from the air, and hills but STP is quite flat, so drafting is massively beneficial at this event. In 2025 we had 4 people for most of the ride, aside from a portion where a larger group hung with us for a bit. But in the second half our group of 4 was really just Drew on the front and the rest of us trading second, third, fourth wheel behind him.

The Ride

So we set off in 2026 with 8-ish guys. By mile 50 we had probably dropped 2-3 of our original group but we also steadily picked up riders as we passed groups who started before us. This trend continued probably all the way to mile 100 at which point we had a group of about 15 riders. Most of whom stuck with it all the way to the end. This was such fun, trading pulls in a very efficient side by side style draft train. At parts it got tough as people's strength started to dwindle. Around mile 160 our group of 15 turned into a group of about 5 rotating pulls with a group of 10 hanging on for dear life. But a rally call at the last rest stop inspired people to give what they had to get back into the drafting routine and contribute whatever they had. This was a great relief. I hadn't skipped any pulls but felt my body getting to the point where I could hardly make it over "The Turn" which is basically the part where you're briefly breaking the wind for the whole group.

The Final Stretch

So we're around mile 170 with a revitalized group of 15 riders sharing the pulls, and this part really was so fun. We were on pace to hit our sub 9 goal and cruising along the highway at 22-25 MPH. Once we got to the bridge that I know as about 10 miles to go things changed a bit. I suspect crossing the line first was in the back of everyone's mind for the past couple of miles as it was obvious at this point that whoever led our group over the line would be the "Winner" (Important to clarify here - STP is an event not a race so technically you can't "Win" however there is a finish line and you can cross it first). We cross the bridge and someone launches an attack. An attack is basically a rider saying "I'm hitting the gas now and hoping I can leave you guys behind". Despite my enjoyment for riding, I have 0 race experience, so this was new for me, I am usually working with those who I ride with not attacking. But despite the connotation of the word it's not a hostile move or anything. Totally understandable at this point in the ride. When someone "Attacks" other riders will try to "Chase Down" the attack which is basically riding away with the guy who attacked. If they catch him they'll either ride with him or just sit on his wheel. Sitting on his wheel is "Shutting Down" the attack, riding with him I think would then make it a "Breakaway".

The Sprint Finish

I missed this chase down but Drew and someone else caught him. This was quite interesting because now there's 3 people up front, and me and a few others off the back but within eyesight. The group in front at this point is playing for sprint position, trying not to pull too much or too hard. This opens the door for me because it slows them down. I go down on my aero bars and manage to chase them down. So now I am in the lead group and it's about 5 guys. Super exciting. We turn the corner and I spot the finish line. My experience in 2025 helps me out here because I honestly don't think the others saw it. It is probably 0.25 miles away at this point. I hit the gas with everything I've got. A clever move here was I went into the road at this point and it's a protected bike lane meaning that the other guys in the lead group who were in the bike lane couldn't get in my draft due to the median. So this clever move combined with me hitting the gas first lets me open up a bit of a lead, and by giving it everything I've got I manage to cross the line first! Super exciting, I even let out a bit of a battle cry coming across the line.

So that was STP 2026. An experience in learning from your mistakes in 2025, and overall an amazing ride. Finish time 8:52:55, no pulls skipped, and no cramps until the final sprint (acceptable). All goals completed, could not have asked for a better experience. Some of the guys in the group have floated the idea of 8:30 goal next year, which feels ambitious, although I guess maybe with a tailwind anythings possible.

The Data

As this is my personal site where I try to connect these things to my career. I think it would be fun to show an example of a super cool strava feature where you can integrate Claude with Strava using an MCP. It really is quite remarkable how steady my numbers were from year to year.

View the STP 2025 vs 2026 Dashboard

Also a note. From 2025 - 2026 I got a new bike due to some warranty issues. This was a big inspiration for my New Bike Day project which is basically supposed to be a "Wind Tunnel" built on strava API to tell you which of your bikes are faster