Imagine the scenic beauty of Lake Tahoe with its 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. After a two year hiatus, the 29th Annual “America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride – Lake Tahoe” returns welcoming 3000+ bicyclists from all over the country to ride around the shoreline of Lake Tahoe. This fun ride is not a race but a fully supported bike tour and promotes the Lake Tahoe Bikeway project, the master plan to construct and inter-connect all the bike lanes around Lake Tahoe and assist the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition with its annual Bike Safe Lake Tahoe bicycle safety campaign. This is a fully supported bike tour offers spectacular scenery, fresh mountain air, and rest stops with great food & beverage, staffed by volunteers from various local non-profit organizations. It is professionally managed by experienced ride organizers with decades of knowledge of the Lake Tahoe area.
The ride is also the culmination of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training (TNT) Cycle 100 national fundraising program where nearly 700 participants from 35 chapters and branches are participating and expect to raise over $3 million dollars. Over the past 25 years, TNT has brought a total of 24,000+ participants to Lake Tahoe to ride America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, bringing their total funds raised to $107 million dollars! Since its beginning in 1988, more than 650,000 participants have helped TNT and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) raise more than $1.5 billion to support blood-cancer research and patient service programs to improve the quality of life for their patients and families.
Bicyclists will ride two different tour options based on their ability level with all rides starting and finishing clockwise from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, located on U.S. Hwy 50, South Shore, Stateline – Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
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 its route in both California and Nevada. The 72-mile route circumnavigates the highways around Lake Tahoe in a clockwise direction and offers over 4,000 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 Hwy. 89 from Tahoe City to historic Truckee that offers additional vertical feet of climbing before returning to Tahoe City to continue around the Lake. This ride option offers over 4,900 vertical feet of climbing.
Rest Stops, stocked with a variety of fresh fruits, energy bars, cookies, energy drink, and more are offered at the Vikingsholm Parking Lot overlooking Emerald Bay; Gate Keeper’s Museum in Tahoe City; Save Mart in Truckee; Kings Beach and Spooner Junction. Various local area bike shops provide technical support at all rest stops. Sponsoring rest stops include volunteers from Sierra at Tahoe Ski Education Foundation, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, 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 course support. Barton Health Care / Tahoe Orthopedic Center and Douglas County and Carson City Search & Rescue providing medical first aid services. Both California Highway Patrol and Nevada State Police will provide traffic control 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 NDOT goodie bag and welcome packet, a commemorative number, event t-shirt, wristband and custom water bottle. Plus, food & beverage at all rest stops, a lunch stop in Kings Beach and will also be awarded a finishers medal at the finish line, as well as being treated to an after ride meal & pool party with live entertainment at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Pre-registered rider check-in will take place on Saturday, June 4, 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 5, the morning of the ride, starting at 5:00 a.m. at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Parking lot C.
