Published November 10, 2026 08:34AM
Whiskey Off-Road Adds a Gravel Race to Its Historic Mountain Bike Event
The gravel race adds to a packed weekend that includes a fat tire crit as well.
Whiskey Off-Road 2016 Day 3 (Photo: Courtesy Whiskey Off-Road)
After two decades of hosting one of the largest and most celebrated mountain bike races in the country, Epic Rides has expanded its Whiskey Off-Road weekend to include a gravel race. The Prescott based event will run the same backcountry marathon mountain bike race on Saturday, while the gravel event will take on gravel roads around the same area Sunday.Previously, the amateur race would run Saturday while the pros would race Sunday. Now, all the mountain bike action will take place on Saturday, with the pro men and women starting just before the amateur races. This will put the race in line with the formatting of the Life Time Grand Prix races.
While the Sunday gravel race is shorter than most at 20 or 40 miles, it packs a punch with well over 5,000 feet of climbing for the 40-mile version. In fact, it will take on the same Skull Valley climb that the mountain bike course races, which tops out at around 7,000 feet above sea level. The gravel bike aspect for the mountain bike race might be new, but the route itself isn’t. The Whiskey Off-Road preceded many of the trails that have been built in and around Prescott, so the course is actually a return to the original Whiskey 50 proof route. “We’ve never stopped thinking about the ride into Skull Valley,” Todd Sadow, founder of Epic Rides, said. “As the singletrack network grew, it made perfect sense to evolve our mountain bike courses. Bringing the original route back as a gravel option lets us celebrate the Whiskey’s roots while giving riders another way to experience the Southwest’s wide-open spaces.”
The race is just one addition to an already packed weekend. Things kick off Friday, April 30 with the professional fat tire crit around downtown Prescott, before changing gears quickly to the backcountry event on Saturday May 1. Then, it’s on to drop bars for the Sunday gravel race on May 2. There will be a weekend omnium, but there are no further details on what that will look like at this moment. For professionals, however, it is the same rules as usual for the fat tire crit on Friday: if you want a shot at the big money purse on Saturday, you have to start Friday night.