This weekend 10,000 bicyclists will gear up and hit the road for the 30th annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP).

Produced by the Cascade Bicycle Club, the untimed recreational bike ride will start tomorrow at the University of Washington and finish at Holladay Park in Portland, with riders choosing to take on the 202.25 mile ride in one day or two.

This year’s ride, which sold out on June 1, features riders as old as 87 coming from seven countries — Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, Puerto Rico, Sweden and the United States – and 46 states.

Among them will be two Auburn riders, Bruce Wandler, who has done the trek seven times, and Ryan Georgi, who is riding the STP for the first time.

THE VETERAN

It takes a pretty big event to pull Auburn surgeon Bruce Wandler away from the annual STP bike ride.

Since 1999 Wandler has ridden in the STP seven times, missing last year’s ride to participate in the Big Ride Across America sponsored by the American Lung Association.

According to Wandler, 63, the STP has become such a big part of his life that he even chose to put off surgery in 2006 to participate.

“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and started treatments in early 2006,” Wandler said. “I started medications and tried to shrink the size of the prostate. The biopsy in April showed two areas of cancer.”

Wandler said his doctor immediately recommended a prostate-ectomy.

“I said ‘We can do this after the STP in July,” Wandler said. “I did the STP in July, and the following Wednesday went in for my radical prostate-echtomy.”

Wandler is silent for a moment before talking about his bout with cancer.

“I’m not really that emotional, but sometimes,” he said.

He recalled riding cancer-free in the STP in 2007.

“I was at a rest stop in Spanaway and was talking to a couple of guys in the (bathroom),” he said. “I told them, ‘last year when I did the STP, I had cancer. This year I don’t. And they just kind of look at you and afterwards, come up and say, ‘Have a good ride.’”

Wandler said he is working up to this year’s ride, which he will take in two days, by commuting to work on his bike, putting in about 50 to 60 miles a week.

“People laugh at me for this,” he said. “But I ride my bike down to Vision Quest two days a week to exercise with my daughter in her spin class. So I bicycle down to the gym to exercise on a bike, so I can bicycle home.”

Wandler said he has been riding seriously for about 20 years, starting in the late-80s when his daughter, Jinny, recommended a ride through the passes of the North Cascades.

“That started our rides, those three days,” he said. “And bicycling has just preceded from that.”

Wandler added that of all the rides, he has a soft spot for the STP.

“The STP is a wonderful ride,” he said. “The first time we did it, we had a little trouble. There was a group of six of us, and four of us finished. A year or so later I took the ride by myself because I wanted to have a good STP. It’s a beautiful sport. So I did the ride and had a great time.”

“It’s physically demanding because of the distance,” Wandler added. “The hills aren’t too bad. They talk about ‘The Hill,’ and that’s the one in Puyallup. There are some in Centralia, but those are just hills. They tend to come at the end of the days, so that’s why they are hard. You do have to spend hundreds of miles and hours in the saddle though.”

Unlike some riders who try to speed through the route in one day, Wandler said he prefers to take his time.

“I’m not a fast rider. I average about 12 1/2 to 13 miles per hour,” Wandler said. “My first day is going to be the UW parking lot to Vader. Then I’ll spend the night and get up in the morning and head to Portland, early enough in the afternoon to take the trip back.”

He continued:

“I think the fastest I’ve done it has been 15 hours over two days, that’s 10 hours one day and five hours the next day. The best part of the ride really is the ride itself. Those hours on the ride, pedaling along are just great.”

Although Wandler said he has ridden the route solo in the past, he prefers to take along family members and friends.

“I want it to turn into a family tradition,” he said. “It gives us something to get out with the children, get the family members together and get going. And the Cascade Bicycling Club does such a good job with it. It’s a good, good ride.”

Wandler added that riding with other people who take up the challenge is also part of the appeal.

“For me it’s the whole camaraderie of all the people on the road,” he said. “You really meet some good people.”

THE ROOKIE

For Ryan Georgi, 29, this year’s STP will be his first.

Georgi, a 1998 Auburn High School graduate, said he recently started becoming more active physically.

“I wasn’t sedentary, but I wasn’t exactly physically fit,” Georgi said. “I had average endurance.

“Before I got into physical therapy — I’m a physical therapy assistant — I was just doing labor jobs,” he continued. “During these jobs my knees started to bother me and I became really discouraged. I thought the best course of action was to decrease my activity and do less and stop doing exercise.”

It wasn’t until he started taking physical therapy classes at Green River Community College that he fully realized the importance of exercise, both for his knees and for his general well being.

“I realized that I needed to exercise,” he said.

According to Georgi, he started weightlifting before someone gave him a bicycle to try out.

“I was given a bike last year as a gift and started riding it and was shocked at how fast my endurance approved,” he said. “After a while I was just addicted. And biking led to running and running led to swimming and suddenly I thought, ‘Hey, let’s do the STP, hey let’s do a triathlon. Hey, let’s climb Mount Rainier.”

In addition to riding in this year’s STP, Georgi said he is also going to compete in the Seafair Triathlon next month and hopes to start training to climb Mount Rainier soon.

“I like to set my goals high and see if I can achieve them,” he said. “When I first started cycling late last year, I considered a 12-mile bike ride pretty exhausting. Pretty soon that became easy, and I increased my distance over a period of time. And pretty soon the STP seemed within reach.

“Just a few months ago I never thought I’d be training to do these things, because I never thought I could get past the knee pain or increase my endurance level,” he said.

Georgi, who works as a physical therapist assistant at Highline Therapy Services in Tuckwila, said he encourages everybody to get off the couch and try riding.

“I would say it’s a fun way to help increase your endurance, and you’d be surprised how quickly it can increase,” he said. “I’m just doing this for overall fitness.”