(Photo: Cascade Bicycle Club)
One of the largest and most well-known group bike rides in the Pacific Northwest won’t let Covid-19 get in the way of its 41st year.
Cascade Bicycle Club announced today that the 200-mile Seattle-to-Portland (STP) ride will be a “virtual challenge” this year. 2020 will be only the second year the ride has been cancelled, with the other time being the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.
This year’s STP will begin on July 18th and you’ll have until August 5th to complete the ride. Registered participants will create their own challenge — like 200 miles in 1 day or 10 miles a day for 20 days — and then log miles online and watch a “virtual challenge unfold” as they earn badges for reaching the traditional food stops along the route. The virtual journey will share bits about the history of STP and the places it rolls through.
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About 8,000 people ride STP each year and there’s always a big finish line party at Holladay Park in the Lloyd. The event is more than a bike ride as it raises over $100,000 for nonprofit organizations and businesses in the small towns it rolls through. To help make some of that revenue in a year without registration fees, proceeds from Virtual STP merchandise will be split between Cascade and local community groups.
Registration for the event is free and opens July 1st. Sign up and learn more at Cascade.org/STP.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Thank you for sharing the news Jonathan, and to any of your readers who choose to participate by looping their neighborhoods. The cancellation of the traditional STP will really hit hard many community nonprofits that rely on the revenue from all the bicyclists who typically pedal through their towns as a major fundraiser for everything from local food banks to college scholarships. Cascade hopes that through the generosity of bicyclists who participate in the Virtual STP we can raise significant funds to support those groups, as well as many Cascade programs. We hope to see many Portlanders in the virtual peloton!
I’m game–this will be my ninth or tenth!