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 June 2, 2013, 3500 bicycling enthusiasts from all over the country will participate in the 22nd 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.  This is a fully supported tour offering spectacular scenery, fresh mountain air, rest stops with great food & beverage; and is staffed by volunteers from various local organizations and is professionally managed by experienced ride organizers.  The event is sold out with 3500 participants that have pre-registered.

The ride is also the culmination of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s spring Team In Training (TNT) Cycle 100 national fund raising program where 1200 participants from 31 chapters and branches are participating and expect to raise over $4.2 million dollars. Over the past 15 years, TNT has brought nearly 23,000 participants to Lake Tahoe and America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, bringing their total funds raised to $84 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.

Bicyclists will ride three different tour options based on their ability level with all rides starting and finishing from the Horizon Casino Resort, located on U.S. Hwy 50, South shore, Stateline - Lake Tahoe, Nevada. 

For the "recreational" experienced bicyclists, the Lake Tahoe Boat Cruise & 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 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 offering additional vertical feet of climbing before returning to Tahoe City to continuing around the Lake.  This ride option offers over 4,900 vertical feet of climbing.

Rest Stops, stocked with a variety of fresh fruits, Nature’s Bakery 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, 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. All riders will also be awarded a Finisher’s Medal at the Finish Line.

Pre-registered rider check-in will take place on Saturday, June 1, 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 2, 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.  

America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride - Lake Tahoe is produced and professionally managed by Curtis Fong of TGFT Productions / Bike the West, a 25 year member of the Bicycle Ride Directors Association of America (BRDAA) which sanctions the event requiring all participants to wear helmets.  TGFT / Bike the West also produces Tour of the Carson Valley – Barbecue & Ice Cream Social on June 23; Tour de Tahoe – Bike Big Blue - Ride to Cure Diabetes on September 8 and OATBRAN, “One Awesome Tour Bike Ride Across Nevada”, September 22-28, 2013.  For more information visit the website, www.bikethewest.com or call 800-565-2704. 
E-mail: tgft@bikethewest.com

PUBLIC NOTICE: PLEASE SHARE THE ROADWAY WITH 3500+ BICYCLISTS - SUNDAY JUNE 2, 2013

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 2, 2013:

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.