2011 Sierra Cup Series

More details about the NorNevada Sierra Cup Series:

The Sierra Cup Regional Championship Mountain Biking Series for 2011 begins this weekend in Gardnerville, NV. The Sierra Cup is a seven race point series to determine the USA Cycling cross-country mountain bike champions for the Northern California/Nevada region.Top finishers at the first three events will also qualify to compete at the Mountain Bike National Championships in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 14-17.

The Sierra Cup events are the Pine Nut Cracker on May 21 in Gardnerville, NV; the Peavine Challenge on June 5 in Reno, NV; the Skyline Park Mountain Bike Race on June 12 in Napa, CA; the Kirkwood Mountain Classic on July 23 at Kirkwood, CA; the Sky Tavern Classic on August 14 in Reno; The Great Tahoe Flume Race on September 10 at Spooner Lake and the Sawtooth Ridge Challenge on October 2 at Northstar-at-Tahoe.

These events take riders through some of best trails in the West and challenge them with heart pounding climbs and fun, technical descents.  There are age and ability categories for all levels of riders.  Race distances vary with each event and are often based on the ability categories.  Each individual event awards medals to the top finishers as well as series points.  Besides the regional champion medals for the series winners, there is also a $1500 series purse for top riders.

The Sierra Cup is unique in that all of the participating races donate their proceeds to various non-profit organizations that give back to the trails where mountain bikers ride. These organizations include the Poedunks, Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association, Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park Backcountry Patrol, Skyline Wilderness Park, and the Truckee Trails Foundation.

Sponsors for the Sierra Cup series include GU Energy, Wilderness Trail Bikes, CytoSport, Black Rock Bicycles, Sierra Cyclesmith, Velo Reno, Voler, Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicyles, Santa Cruz Bicycles, SCHEELS, Specialized, Resource Revival, Adventure Sports Journal, and Cycle California!

For more information visit www.renowheelmen.org or e-mail mtb11@renowheelmen.org. The Sierra Cup Series is on facebook atwww.facebook.com/SierraCupMTB.

The series starts this weekend with the Pine Nut Cracker.

2010 Sky Tavern

The 2010 edition of the University of Nevada's Sky Tavern XC MTB race will be held this Saturday (August 14th, 2010) at the Sky Tavern Ski area near Mount Rose Ski Area (north of Incline Village, south of Reno).

The course has been described as "High in the Tahoe Sierras, this course is a technical 6 mile loop at the Sky Tavern ski area. The trail starts off with a steep fire road climb up to some tight, winding single track that finishes with a fast open descent. The trail will be the same as in years past."

As in past year's, the race will be the 3rd race in the Nevada State Championship Cross Country Series. Full details are available on the flier at Sky Tavern Nevada cup Race Info Flier (PDF).

2009 Sky Tavern

I listed this back in May, but hadn't posted details on this because I couldn't find them on the Reno Wheelmen revamped website. However, it turns out they were just hiding from me (PDF):

High in the Tahoe Sierras, this course is a technical 6 mile loop at the Sky Tavern ski area (near Mount Rose). The trail starts off with a steep fire road climb up to some tight, winding single track that finishes with a fast open descent. The trail will be the same as in years past. XC Racing Race entry fee is $25.00 for Adults and $15.00 for juniors. Cash Prize to top 5 Men and top 3 women.

From what I can tell, it appears that this is only an XC event this year (unlike previous XC/DH events).

2009 Nevada Cup Scheduled

So I completely dropped the ball on this one, even after someone sent me an email to remind me about it:
The 2009 Nevada Cup is scheduled and underway. The four race series covers familar races from past years (Pine Nut, Peavine and Sky Tavern) but drops the Rainbow Ridge race (and the Comstock Classic didn't seem to pan out). I don't have websites for all of these but here are the dates:

• May 2nd: Pine Nut Cracker, Gardnerville (RESULTS in PDF)
• May 30th: Peavine Challenge, Reno
• Aug 16th: Sky Tavern Classic, Reno

Here is the full PDF listing the events with some details.

These aren't yet listed on the sidebar but should be up later today. Sorry again to the NorNevada folks about the oversight.

2008 Sky Tavern Classic

The folks up the hill at dhRENO have posted the details on the upcoming Sky Tavern Classic scheduled for September 27th & 28th near Reno, Nevada. Some of the details:

"Sky Tavern Race
September 27th & 28th, 2008
HOSTED BY NEVADA CYCLING
SKY TAVERN RESORT RENO, NEVADA

Racing: On Saturday will be XC and Sunday the dh with both collegiate and NORBA categories.

Cross Country: The course features a steady climb, followed by about 1.5 miles of up-and-down single track.  Then, a fast single-track descent with lots of dg, a short climb, and more mixed descending to lodge.  Each lap is ~6 miles.  XC will begin at 10am on Saturday.

Downhill: Technical dg single-track followed by short road section into final section of tight single-track through trees.  Course time is about 2.5 minutes.  Collegiate MC/WB and NORBA Beginners will skip upper single-track and use road instead."

Click over to Sky Tavern DH Race « dhRENO for the full details.

2007 Sky Tavern Results

So I never saw the results for this posted on the Reno Wheelmen page for the 2007 Nevada Cup, but dhRENO had the scoop:

Sky Tavern DH ‘07: "Looks like the Sky Tavern downhill race did go off this year with 7 racers, each in a different category, so everyone was a winner!" (Via dhRENO)

Congrats to Jon Wilson and Heidi Kanayan who won the Men's and Women's Pro/Expert DH races. See the dhRENO link for full DH results and pictures.

I found the XC results after scouring the USA Cycling website. Congratulations to Michael Andres and Zephanie Blasi who won the Men's and Women's Pro XC race.

2007 Nevada Cup

I saw this in a Reno area website, but haven't been able to confirm it. Figured I would run it anyway. Here are this year's Nevada Cup locations and dates:

• April 22: Jetway Chevrolet Rainbow Ridge Challenge [XC] (Fallon, Nevada)
• May 6: Pine Nut Cracker [XC] (Gardnerville, Nevada)
• June 2-3: Peavine Challenge [XC, DH] (Reno, Nevada)
• Aug 18-19: Sky Tavern [XC, DH] (near Reno on Mount Snow)

From the article, "Organizers announced the 2007 Nevada Cup series, which will determined the northern Nevada state mountain bike champions. Brent Hart of Reno Wheelman spoke about the series, "These courses were specifically chosen to challenge the advanced riders and at the same time allow beginning riders to feel comfortable to compete."

Series standing will be based on the total accumulated points from the series. In the event of a tie, the racer's place in the Series final race (Sky Tavern) will determine the final standing. In addition, the top 15 riders in each category/(age) class in each race will qualify for the US National Championships in Mt Snow, VT July 17-22, 2007. The Sky Tavern Classic qualifies for the 2008 USA National Championships.

I will be posting detailed information on each race over the next few days. Thanks to Cycling News for the announcement.

UPDATE (04/18/07): The Nevada Cup website has been posted.

RACE REPORT: 2006 Sky Tavern

Although I haven't seen any race reports for this yet, the results have been posted here (since they are in MS Excel attachment, I've posted them in HTML here also). I'll post more as I get more on this.

UPDATE (08/23/06): The good folks at dhReno has posted their race report and pictures.

Sky Tavern Update

Some updates for the Sky Tavern XC & DH race this weekend:

• Tonight (Wednesday, August 16th) is a pre-ride and clean-up day. The course is in part of the Tahoe Wilderness and its important to leave no trace behind.
  
• Friday, the course will be marked starting at 4 PM.
• There is a topo map of the XC course posted.
• Directions to Sky Tavern are also posted.
• Sky Tavern will not have drinking water for the day of the race. There is currently a boil order in place for the area. They will have a lot of water available, but please bring some of your own.

The folks over at dhReno also have some more information on the race.

2006 Sky Tavern Announced

The University of Nevada Reno Cycling Team has announced the details for their 2006 Sky Tavern race. Providing both cross country (XC) and downhill (DH) competitions, the race will be held August 19th, 2006 near the Sky Tavern Ski Area [ MAP ].

The XC course is a technical 6 mile loop. The trail starts off with a steep fire road climb up to some tight, winding single track that finishes with a fast open descent. Riders will do between one and six laps (one for beginners through four for expert men and pros).

The DH course is a technical, rocky course with a couple of steep sections. They hope to use the same course as in years past. DH practice will be open in the morning.

Event: Sky Tavern Race
Dates: August 19th, 2006
Location: Sky Tavern Ski Area (Reno, NV) [ MAP ]
Competition: DH, XC
Cost: $30/event
URL: http://www.nevadacycling.com/racing.shtml
Registration: Onsite race day only
License: NORBA

UPDATE (08/16/06): Updated information here.