The third annual Race for Tara held last weekend on October 10th & 11th at the Northstar Resort in Tahoe has come and gone and I almost can’t believe it! So much blood, sweat, and tears as they say was put into every aspect of that event. From the designing of event tees and Mega DH courses to organizing the Saturday night party to remembering to buy the champagne bottles for the Pro Podium. I never knew how much went into promoting and putting on an event of this magnitude, but to see the smile on riders faces as they came down from the top of Northstar mountain made it all SO worth it.
We were able to raise just over $15,000 that will go towards the Tara Llanes Road to Recovery Fund and also The Christopher Reeve-Research Center (www.reeve.uci.edu) to help find a cure for spinal cord injuries. The Race for Tara isn’t just a race. It is an event and without the help of the Northstar Resort in Tahoe and Giant Bicycles we would not have been able to put on such a world-class event. This is the first year that we have been at Northstar, but according to Andy Buckley, Director for Northstar, “they are proud to have the R4T event at their mountain and cannot wait until next year.”
We were greeted with beautiful sunny skies the entire weekend and an awesome festival type atmosphere with SF dirtlab’s Matt Harden working the turn-tables all weekend up at the finish line at mid-mountain and at Saturday nights Nutcase Helmets beer garden. The racers were shuttled up on Saturday to run the 4-mile 1,800-foot descent that included open fire road, flowy singletrack, and rock gardens. It was heard all throughout the weekend how “rad” the track was and it was one of the best anyone has ever seen. WTB Pro and 7x Downieville DH Champion Mark Weir was even quoted as saying, “This is the best course I have raced on all year!” A big thank you to Kyle and Forrest for designing such a spectacular Mega DH.
After a wicked day of practice, good music, and having a great time everyone headed down the mountain for Saturday nights party, big ticket item raffle, and a NWD10 Premiere. You could hear the “ooohs and aaahhs” all throughout NWD10. The Northstar roller rink and cabana area was where the party started afterward and where we raffled off a Giant Glory 00, a Leatt brace, and a Troy Lee D2 Helmet.
All throughout the day the pit area was bustling with riders and spectators checking out the booths of Giant and Giant for Women, The Christopher Reeve-Research Center, Fox Clothing, Leatt Brace, The Bicycle Trip of Santa Cruz, Thule, Shimano, Troy Lee Designs, Kali Protectives, Dakine, X-Fusion, Cyclepath MTB, Marin bikes, Kirt Voreis All-Ride Tour/Santa Cruz, RideSFO, and our awesome DJ Matt from SF dirtlab.
At the end of the day it was Team Giant’s Adam Craig (2009 Downieville DH Champion, multi-time World Cup XC podium finisher, and 2007-2008 XC National Champion) that took the win over 2nd place finisher Evan Turpen (Norcal super fast guy), and WTB All-mountain Pro Mark Weir.
In the Women’s Pro division we had 8 women vying for first, but it was Lizzy English winning with a time of 12:13 over Joanna Peterson, and Anka Martin of South Africa rounding out third place. The complete list of results will be posted at www.racefortara.com as well as photos. We are still getting photos in from a lot of different photographers so bare with us.
After the podium presentations of oversized cheques being awarded and champagne being sprayed it was on to the largest raffle ever seen!!! We were given so many unreal products and everyone that came for the race stayed till the very end. We had a Michelin Pit bike, Jamis Parker frames, Easton helmets, Blackburn pumps, Troy Lee Helmets, Fox Launch Pro Pads, Fox Shox, Leatt braces, Crank brothers pedals, a Light and Motion lighting unit, Shimano Saint brakes, Electra bikes, a Garmin computer, Camelbak packs and water bottles, a set of Perfect Pushups, Mavic wheels, Nutcase helmets, and so so much more. For a full list of sponsors that contributed please go to http://racefortara.com/sponsors.htm.
I would like to extend my personal thank you to: Mike Stewart, Daniel Cress, Brian Bolin, Thayne Bolin, Andy Buckley, Amber Whitman, Eric McGaughey, Nadia Guerriero, Kyle Crezee, Forrest Philpot, Tiffany Brown, Elysa Walk, Donna Chin, Patrick VanHorn, Russ Okawa, Travis Chipres, Evan Kay, Nate Riffle, Phil Mowatt, Renee Anderson, Kim Cress, Tania Cusack, Jessica Van Pernis, Josh Fonner, Frank Trotter, Jared Rando, Brad Kippling, Elladee Brown, Mom, Larry Lunchbox, Derek and Freeride Entertainment, Stella Stewart, Will Stewart, Dillon, Madison Stewart, Kim and Daniel’s mom and dad, Lucy, Adam Craig, Carl Decker, Heath Pinter, Brooke Duquesnel, Brandon Duquesnel, Jason, Tony Karwowski, Mike Schipani, Luke, TK, Paige, Deb Stansell, Nick, Gary, Leslie Tocher, Matt Reeder, and Steve @ Mikuni’s for making this event possible.
