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Granny Gear Snowshoe
Amended Press Kit
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On June 10th and 11th, the Mountain State hosts one of the largest--and most difficult--off-road bike races in the world: The Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe Mountain Bike Team Relay at Snowshoe Mountain Resort, a unique event that pushes competitors to their absolute limits. It's a 'round-the-clock relay race that starts Noon Saturday and ends Noon Sunday, with solo, duo, four- and five-person teams racing to complete the most laps. These teams will traverse some of the toughest, rockiest, steepest--dare we say, gnarliest--terrain West Virginia has to offer. The faster you ride, the more laps you log. And once the sun sets, powerful handlebar and/or helmet-mounted halogen lighting systems (up to 80 watts, that's almost as powerful as the headlights on your car) are de rigueur from dusk to dawn as racers compete on the unlit 11.3-mile course. The race sounds too crazy to be true but the 9th Annual Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe has become legendary in just a few years--growing from a few hundred competitors in the 1992 premier to more than 2,000 racers last year. Listed by both Mountain Bike Action and Mountain Bike Magazine as one of the top three mountain bike race events in the country, this year's Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe will be even bigger, with a limit of 500 teams competing on a spectator-friendly course high in the Allegheny Mountains. Coed pro/am teams at this year's race will be competing for a $20,000 cash purse and amateur teams will be going for $25,000 in prizes.
The racers will endure a course with nearly 1,500 feet of vertical climbing, sleep deprivation, broken equipment, and a kind of bone-tired weariness that comes from racing multiple laps in 24 hours. Inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race, the Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe (and companion events, the 24 Hours of Tahoe held in California and the 24 Hours of Moab held in Utah) will provide an exciting start as 500 competitors (one from each team) race on foot through part of the course before running to their bikes and completing their lap. It's a race that takes planning, an ability to race with little or no sleep, and a car full of bike parts to keep a team rolling through the afternoon, into the night and throughout the entire next morning of tough competition. "The event is a game as much as it is a race," says 24 Hour race promoter Laird Knight. "Strategy plays a big role in each team's final placing. Planning is crucial. Each team should have a master plan, complete with a contingency plan in case of trouble." Each racer will complete one lap, grab a bite to eat, clean up, try to get a few hours sleep and then do it all over again. Under the Log Tent in front of Silver Creek Lodge, a racer completing a turn on the course passes a baton to a waiting teammate who sprints out onto the circuit.
The Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe is the largest off-road cycling event east of the Mississippi and one of the three largest in the country, drawing up to 15,000 spectators. It is a renowned event that attracts teams from as far away as California, Florida and Canada. For the second year in a row, Toyota is the title sponsor--a reflection of corporate America's increasing interest in the attractive demographics of this fast-growing sport. How fast? Barely a decade after its founding in Northern California, mountain biking achieved full-medal status at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. Other sponsors for this year's race include Bike Magazine, NiteRider Technical Lighting Systems, American Lung Association of West Virginia, Cane Creek Cycling Components, Light and Motion, Patagonia, Platypus, Rockshox, Therm-a-rest, and West Virginia Division of Tourism.
While 500 teams will be racing at the 2000 Toyota 24 Hours of Snowshoe, friends, fans and support crews will find plenty to do during the race. It's not just one of the toughest competitions in the East-- it's also one of the most spectator-friendly. Spectators will be treated to a number of festivities, including: a cookout in the Courtyard Friday evening along with live music from the Carpenter Ants, while Saturday plays host to the "24 Minutes of Snowshoe" Kids' Race, and all day competitions by the North American Trials Series (NATS). Because the race goes on all night, a "spectator safari" will depart after midnight to give fans a chance to view the race action under the stars. (Flashlights are required.) This provides an excellent opportunity to experience (on foot) the same terrain that these courageous 2,000 + racers will ride.