The Event

The Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup Las Vegas is a three-day cycling race and festival that includes mountain bike races designed to attract the world’s top professionals, local cycling enthusiasts and children as young as age four.

Date

Friday, September 19, 2008 - Sunday, September 21, 2008

Format

Stage Race: Mandatory for Pro and Semi-pro categories, optional for others. The riders earning the lowest cumulative time over the three days of racing earns the top spot on the winner’s podium.

Omnium: Optional for Expert, Sport, and Beginner categories; this format awards points based on performance in individual races.

Categories

Professional, Semi-pro, Expert, Sport, Beginner, Kids (All adult categories include women’s and men’s divisions by age class and Single-speed and Clydesdale classes.)

Age Groups

Age groups are – 18 and under, 19-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50+ based on NORBA racing age.

Races

Exploration Peak Time Trial, Super D, Kids’ Race & Rodeo, Fat Tire Criterium, and the Titus Bicycles Cross Country.

Location

The event is hosted by Mountain’s Edge, recently voted the No. 1 master planned community in the United States, located in Southwest Las Vegas at Blue Diamond Road at Buffalo Drive.

Prize Purse

The largest prize purse for 2008 in U.S. mountain racing 2008; $25,000 plus a percentage of registration fees pay-back award that creates a prize pool where the larger more competitive categories have larger prize purses.

Race Schedule

Start Times: 2008 Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup Schedule

Friday, September 19
Exploration Peak Time Trial
Exploration Park at Mountain’s Edge - 9700 S. Buffalo Drive. Located one block south of Blue Diamond Road at Buffalo Drive.


Saturday, September 20 (daytime events)
The Super D
Start: Upper Cottonwood parking lot (at approx mile marker 16 on Hwy 160).
Finish: Village of Blue Diamond Highway 159 (6 miles east of the intersection of Hwy. 160 and Hwy. 159)


Saturday, September 20 (evening events)
Fat Tire Criterium, Kids’ Rodeo & Race
Exploration Park at Mountain’s Edge - 9700 S. Buffalo Drive. Located one block south of Blue Diamond Road at Buffalo Drive.


Sunday, September 21
Titus Bicycles Cross Country
Start/Finish: Upper Cottonwood parking lot (at approx mile marker 16 on Hwy 160).

Registration

Open to women, men, and children until event day at www.cactuscuplasvegas.com.
Onsite registration will also be available. The event is free for spectators.
It’s estimated that 15,000 - 20,000 spectators will attend.

Charities

The Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup is committed to improving the quality of life in the local community. The event is supporting two important charities:

The HERA Women’s Cancer Foundation
To solve the widely under-recognized threat to women’s health, ovarian cancer, the HERA (Health, Empowerment, Research, Awareness) Women’s Cancer Foundation uses creativity and authenticity. Established in 2002, HERA empowers women to take control of their health through education materials and awareness programs like HERA Partners in Action. Unique fundraising events such as the HERA Climb4Life, Montrail’s Run Like a Girl and the Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup enable the nonprofit to empower scientists through the HERA OSB1 scientific grant program, which funds research to ensure that a reliable early detection test and better treatment become reality. HERA awards local community ovarian cancer groups with grants that support awareness and outreach programs for women battling this disease.

For more information visit www.herafoundation.org.

The Animal Foundation
The Animal Foundation is a private, nonprofit, multi-service agency dedicated to making a difference in the lives of animals in the Las Vegas Valley. Las Vegas’ largest open-admission shelter, the Animal Foundation offers lost and found, foster home, adoption and low-cost spaying and neutering services, rabies observation, an affordable vaccination clinic, community education and humane and sensitive euthanasia. The Animal Foundation envisions a future free of pet overpopulation where citizens embrace responsible ownership and all healthy and treatable companion animals find safe and loving homes. The Animal Foundation promotes and inspires the humane treatment of all animals in the community.

For more information visit www.animalfoundation.com.

History

The Cactus Cup was first launched in 1991 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The race and festival quickly became the world’s No. 1 mountain bike event attracting 10,000 participants and 75,000 spectators with races in U.S. cities including: Scottsdale, Ariz.; Athens, Ga.; Galena, Ill; Miami, Fla.; Crested Butte, Colo.; and Memphis, Tenn. International Cactus Cup events have been held in: Tokyo, Japan; Cairns, Australia; Munster, France; Munich, Germany; Canmore, Alberta and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. The last Cactus Cup was held in 2001 in Athens, Georgia. In 2008 Swagger, LLC partnered with Mountain’s Edge to revive the event in Las Vegas.

Title Sponsor

Mountain’s Edge Master Planned Community
With proximity to the Red Rock National Conservation Area and the Old Spanish Trail, Mountain’s Edge, a 3,500-acred master planned community celebrates the history and the exploration of the Las Vegas Valley, the explorers and pioneers who traversed the trails, as well as nature’s creation of the surrounding area. When fully developed, Mountain’s Edge is planned for four elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school. The community is planned to have a fire station, shopping centers, restaurants and commercial office space. Mountain’s Edge recently was certified by Robert Charles Lesser & Co. (RCLCo), a leading independent real estate advisory firm, as the No.1 selling master planned community in the United States in 2007. In 2006, the community ranked as the No. 2 selling master plan in the nation.

Swagger

The Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup is produced by Swagger, a company with more than 50 years of combined experience as a sports marketing and event management organization. The United States’ leading producer of criterium racing, Swagger currently produces more than 40 criterium events, including America’s premier criterium the Twilight Criterium in Athens, Ga., a race that’s enjoyed tremendous success since 1980.