Death Ride Saturday

The 30th annual Tour of the California Alps Death Ride will draw nearly 3,000 cyclists to Alpine County this weekend.

Over the years, the ride - which encompasses up to 129 miles over five mountain passes with 15,000 feet of climbing - has become known as one of the premiere cycling events in the country.

Start time for the Death Ride is 5:30 a.m. Saturday and all riders will have to be off the course by 8 p.m.

The large field includes riders between the ages of 8 and 80, along with a number of riders from out of the country and even a handful of tandem bike entries. Participating riders have the option of riding one, two, three, four or five mountain passes. Last year, 2,200 out of 2,800 riders completed all five passes, marking the largest number ever to accomplish the feat.

Several area roads will be closed due to the event.

The road from the Markleeville Courthouse at the junction of highways 89 and 4 will be closed 5-8 a.m. Saturday.

Monitor and Ebbetts passes will be closed starting at 5 a.m. Monitor will reopen at noon and Ebbetts will reopen at 3 p.m.

For more information, visit www.deathride.com.