TOUR OF THE GILA MEETS WNMU GREAT RACE TEAMS

SILVER CITY, N.M. – Western New Mexico University students are geared up to take part in the 22nd Annual Tour of the Gila bike race, but with a two-wheel advantage. WNMU Great Race teams will compete against each other in the Tour of the Gila on Saturday, May 3 at 4:45pm for a race being billed as “2008 Tour of the Gila Meets Great Race.”
For 41 years, WNMU has held its own race competition using go-carts and a specially designed course centered around the university campus. This year the seven Great Race teams were invited by Tour of the Gila organizers to race on the same course the bikers compete on earlier in the day.
The Tour of the Gila is a nationally recognized five-day cycling event with participants from various countries and thirty-five different states. Four hundred and fifty bicyclists will be participating this year, New Mexicans making up fifty of the professional participants.
“This is a great opportunity to have WNMU and the Tour of Gila work together for the community,” said Les Rubin, a Tour of the Gila organizer, “many people see the Tour and some see the Great Race, now they can see both.”
Great Race teams will compete on a 1.08-mile course on city streets. There are four 90-degree corners and 80 inches of climbing per lap. Preceding the WNMU race will be the women’s and men’s professional races and a citizen race.
The latest Great Race event took place earlier this month after weeklong activities in which students accumulate points through smaller competitive races. The Great Race itself takes place on the last day and is a three-lap course around the university campus.

Located in Silver City, New Mexico, Western New Mexico University has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive, regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and caters to a student body diverse in age, culture, language and ethnic background.

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