March 07, 2013 (Biwabik, Minn.) – The 29th Annual Pepsi Challenge Cross Country Ski Race will be held at Giants Ridge on Saturday, March 9, 2013.  “With the recent heavy snowfall, the race course has terrific snow coverage with a solid 8” base, has been groomed with the piston bully and is ready to go,” said John Filander, Giants Ridge Winter Sports Director.

Deb Maki, the Race Coordinator is reminding skiers to sign up to ski now.  March 6 is the last day to pre-register on-line with Midwest Events.  Mail-in registrations can be down-loaded off our website HERE.  Being pre-registered will also put you into the mix for the prize drawings at registration.

Our wonderful sponsors of the 2013 Pepsi Challenge are:  Giants Ridge, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Great River Energy, SmartWool, Minnesota Power, UPS, TOKO, Hammer Nutrition, Zeal Optics, Salomon, Bennett & Koch Construction, Range 11 – KBJR TV6, Biwabik Area Civic Assoc., Nature Valley Granola Bars and Cold Snap Technology.  New this year: Great River Energy has come on as a major sponsor and has naming rights to the 24K Classic and Freestyle races.  The 24K races will be called the Great River Energy Rush Races!

Great River Energy is a not-for-profit cooperative which provides wholesale electric service to 28 distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those member cooperatives distribute electricity to approximately 645,000 member consumers – or about 1.7 million people. With more than $3 billion in assets, Great River Energy is the second largest electric power supplier in Minnesota and one of the largest generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives in the United States. Great River Energy’s member cooperatives range from those in the outer-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Arrowhead region of Minnesota to the farmland of southwestern Minnesota. Great River Energy’s largest distribution cooperative serves more than 125,000 member-consumers; the smallest serves about 2,500. Learn more here.

Another new sponsor is Zeal Optics.  Zeal manufactures ski glasses and ski goggles and is based out of Boulder, CO with Mike Filander as our representative.

The 10K freestyle race is now known as the Giants Ridge 10K Race.

We welcome Great River Energy, Zeal Optics and Giants Ridge as sponsors!

On Saturday, March 9, there will be five races total.  The 48K & 24K Classic Races start at 9:00 a.m. and the 48K & 24K Freestyle Races start at 9:30 a.m., with the 10K race starting at 9:45 a.m.  All race registration and bib pick up will take place at the Biwabik Park Pavilion, Biwabik, MN.   Bib pick up and registration will be from Noon until 10:00 p.m. on Friday, March 8 and from 7:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. on Saturday race morning.  There will be a soup/sandwich feed on March 9 after the race, in the lower level of The Lodge at Giants Ridge from 11:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  Awards ceremony will start at 2:00 p.m. at The Lodge.

For Race information check out our website or e-mail us at pepsichallenge@giantsridge.com.