Lake Tahoe hosts 3,300 plus for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride

Imagine the scenic beauty of Lake Tahoe with its crystal clear blue waters surrounded by towering majestic snow capped peaks. Imagine being able to ride a bicycle around its 72-mile shoreline or a 100-mile century ride. On Sunday more than, 3,300-plus bicycling enthusiasts from all over the country will participate in the 21st annual America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe.

This fun ride is not a race, but a tour and promotes the Lake Tahoe Bikeway project, the master plan to construct and inter-connect all the bike lanes around Lake Tahoe and is fully supported offering spectacular scenery, fresh mountain air, rest stops with great food & beverage; and is staffed by volunteers from various organizations and professionally managed by experienced ride organizers.

The ride is also the culmination of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s spring Team In Training (TNT) Cycle 100 national fund raising program where 1300+ participants from 59 chapters and branches are participating and expect to raise over $5 million dollars. Over the past 14 years, TNT has brought nearly 19,500 participants to Lake Tahoe and America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, bringing their total funds raised to $68.5 million dollars! Since its founding in 1949, the Society has invested more than $750 million in research to support their mission of finding a cure for Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Disease and Myeloma and to improve the quality of life for their patients and families. Renovo Bicycles, a manufacturer that produces sustainable custom hardwood bicycle frames has donated a R1 Hickory wood bicycle frame, valued at $1,950 to be raffled off at the event as an additional fund raising opportunity. Visit www.Renovobikes.com for more information.

America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride participants will be riding clockwise around Lake Tahoe and from Tahoe City to Truckee and back to Tahoe City, starting and finishing at the Horizon Casino Resort at Stateline, South Shore, Lake Tahoe, Nevada from 6:00 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. Traffic will be DELAYED on North bound Hwy 89 - Emerald Bay Road from 6:30am to 8:30am at Spring Creek Road. Southbound Hwy 89 will remain open. The remaining roadways will be OPEN and motorists are asked to share the roadway and plan a little more time to get to their destinations. Below are the Highways, locations and times that bicyclists will be sharing the roadways on Sunday June 3, 2012:

The event is sold out with more than 3,300 participants who have pre-registered. Bicyclists will ride three different tour options based on their ability level with all rides starting and finishing from the Horizon Casino Resort on U.S. Hwy 50, South shore, Stateline on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

For the "recreational" experienced bicyclists, the Lake Tahoe Boat Cruise and 35 mile Half Ride is offered featuring a sightseeing boat cruise on Lake Tahoe Cruise’s Tahoe Queen, complete with a continental breakfast across the Lake to North Lake Tahoe where participants start their 35 mile bike ride back to the Horizon. This ride option offers challenge as well as beauty with over 1000 vertical feet of climbing along Lake Tahoe’s east shore. This ride option is limited to 100 participants and 50 family members and guests with a non-bicycling option.

For the conditioned bicyclists, the 72 mile route around Lake Tahoe is not only one of the most scenic, it is also one of the only bi-state bike rides in the country with it’s route in both California and Nevada. The 72-mile route circumnavigates the highways around Lake Tahoe in a clockwise direction and offers over 2,600 vertical feet of climbing.

For the more conditioned “century rider” bicyclists, a 100 mile option is offered that includes an additional out and back on the Truckee River Bike Path or on Hwy. 89, from Tahoe City to historic Truckee offering an additional 400 vertical feet of climbing before returning to Tahoe City to continuing around the Lake.

Rest Stops, stocked with a variety of fresh fruits, fig bars, cookies, Cytomax Energy Drink, Power Bars & Power Gel, and more are offered at the Vikingsholm Parking Lot overlooking Emerald Bay, at Homewood Mountain Resort, Save Mart in Truckee, Kings Beach Plaza and Spooner Junction. A lunch is featured at the Kings Beach Rest Stop co-sponsored by Port of Subs and Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. Tahoe Sports Ltd., Shoreline Sports, Mighty Mobile Bicycle Repair, Eastern Sierra Cycling Service, WattaBike Shop and Olympic Bike Shop also provide technical support. Sponsoring rest stops include volunteers from Sierra Education Foundation, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Rite of Passage and the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition plus many other volunteers. Event communications are coordinated with the Tahoe Amateur Radio Association and the Tahoe Blue Riders provide Motorcycle support as well as Barton Health Care / Tahoe Orthopedic Center and Douglas County Search & Rescue providing medical first aid services.

All ride options begin at 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., with staggered 15-minute start windows. All bicyclists will receive a Lake Tahoe welcome packet, a commemorative number, event T-shirt, ride patch, custom water bottle, food & beverage at all rest stops, a lunch stop in Kings Beach and after ride pasta feed and pool party with live entertainment featuring local favorite group, Deep Fryed Mojo, at the Horizon Casino Resort.

Pre-registered rider check-in will take place on Saturday, June 2, from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Tahoe Sports Ltd. In the Village Shopping Center, located on Hwy 50 & Heavenly Village Way in South Lake Tahoe; or on Sunday, June 3, the morning of the ride, starting at 5:00 a.m. at the Horizon Casino Parking lot C. Registration is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra. The ride is sold out and there will be limited late / same day registration based on no shows after 7:00am.

America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride - Lake Tahoe is supported by The Reno-Tahoe Territory of the Nevada Commission on Tourism and sponsored by Horizon Casino Resort, Tahoe Daily Tribune, Lake Tahoe Cruises’ Tahoe Queen, Cytomax Energy Drink, Tahoe Sports Ltd, Power Bar & Power Gel, Sparkletts Water, Port of Subs, Pace Sportswear, Pearl Izumi, Thule Rack Systems, Tahoe Amateur Radio Association, Cycle California! Magazine, Safe Pedaling In Nevada (SPIN), Alpen Sierra Coffee Company, Hoch Family Creamery, Sierra Summits Sunscreen, Rudy Project Technical Eyewear, Outside-Lake Tahoe TV and KTHO AM590 / 96.1FM.

For bicyclists looking to make a weekend get away, a variety of accommodations are available from campsites to luxury suites in the high-rise casino hotels to private condominiums. For accommodations at the

Start/Finish - Horizon Casino Resort, call 1-800-648-3322 or call the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority at 1-800-AT-TAHOE.

TGFT / Bike the West also produces Tour of the Carson Valley – Barbecue & Ice Cream Social on June 24; Tour de Tahoe – Bike Big Blue Ride to Cure Diabetes on September 9 and OATBRAN, “One Awesome Tour Bike Ride Across Nevada”, September 23-29, 2012. For more information visit the website, www.bikethewest.com or call 800-565-2704. E-mail: tgft@bikethewest.com

Share the Roadway and Take Note

Hwy 50 west bound Stateline - South Lake Tahoe 6:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

Hwy 89 north bound South Y - Camp Rich - Emerald Bay 6:00 a.m. - 10.00 a.m.

Hwy 89 north bound Emerald Bay Road CLOSED 6:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

Hwy 89 north bound Emerald Bay - West Shore - Homewood 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Hwy 89 north/south bound Tahoe City - Truckee - Tahoe City 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Hwy 28 east bound Tahoe City - Kings Beach - Incline Village 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Hwy 28 south bound Incline Village - Spooner Junction 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Hwy 50 west bound Spooner Junction - Stateline 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.