Early registration opens for Whitefish residents for Last Best Ride
The Last Best Ride bike race hosted 550 cyclists as they rode the trails and gravel roads around Whitefish. The inaugural event in August 2021 included two courses, a 47-mile route and a 90-mile route. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot file)
Back for a second year, The Last Best Ride gavel cycling event is set for Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022.
Registration for the event opens this week with early registration for Whitefish residents for one day only on Nov. 10.
Race organizer Jess Cerra, a Whitefish local and resident professional cyclist, looks to build on what she considers a wildly successful debut in 2021, which garnered over 550 registrants from all over the United States and Canada who flocked to Flathead County to take part in the event.
“I wanted this event to be something novel and unique that would benefit our community,” Cerra said. “Not only did I want to use The Last Best Ride to showcase the spectacular riding and natural beauty in and around Whitefish to the burgeoning gravel cycling scene in the U.S. and beyond, but I also wanted to make sure that the event’s existence within the community worked in some way to better the lives of local residents.”
A full weekend of activities is planned to begin on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, culminating in race day on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022.
Cerra says she’s always wanted to give back to the Whitefish community because it’s given her so much and consequently designed the event largely as a vehicle to fundraise for The Barbara Mansfield Champion Scholar Award, a program created in collaboration with local educators that would direct a portion of proceeds from race registration fees, as well as any supplemental donations, to local, financially-qualified high school women seeking post-secondary education.
The Scholar Award Program amassed over $20,000 in 2021 awarded to four local women.
For 2022 and beyond, Cerra is working to retroactively qualify The Last Best Ride as a 501c(3) nonprofit organization to further grow the scope of the Scholar Award Program.
“By designing the event around the Scholar Award Program, I’ve created an event such that just signing up means registrants play a part in bettering the lives of the locals of the community they visit, regardless of if they want to donate more or not,” Cerra said.
In addition, Cerra hopes conversion to a nonprofit will bolster the mentorship programs of The Last Best Ride. Through the contributions of sponsors, Cerra in 2021 was able to provide equipment, such as bikes, helmets, tools, and shoes, to four local women participating in the event and coach them as they prepared.
“I hope that I can expand on the mentorship capabilities that the event was able to offer in 2021,” Cerra said. “The benefits of sports and bikes brought so much positivity into my life, and I want to share that same positivity with the next generation of young women in the valley.
Registration for the 2022 event formally opens on Thursday, Nov. 11 at 9 a.m. MST, but Whitefish residents will have access to a discounted “Earlyfish” registration starting at 7 a.m. MST on Wednesday, Nov. 10 only. Whitefish residents who wish to sign up, can visit https://www.thelastbestridemt.com/register and use the code EARLYFISHTLBR to unlock your discounted spot.
For more information, visit www.thelastbestridemt.com.