The second edition of Colorado's first and only women's mountain bike race is scheduled for this weekend at Bear Creek Lake Park in Denver. The Beti Bike Bash, run by the Yeti Beti Mountain Bike team based in Golden, drew 170 finishers in 2010. More than 90 of the participants were beginner-class riders. This year, the event will continue to cater to such green racers with their own category and a clinic with Rebecca Rusch on Saturday. For pros, the event has upped the ante with a $3,000 cash purse provided by Stans NoTubes.

Even if you can't or don't want to race, you can still participate in the weekend events by attending a showing of Race Across the Sky on Friday, June 10 at the Tivoli in Denver. The money raised that night will be donated to COMBA, the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and Mountain2Mountain (M2M), a nonprofit organization working to help empower the people of Afghanistan, with a focus on women and girls and gender equity. Also, head out to the park on Saturday for a skills clinic taught by pro, female riders. More information can be found on the Beti Bike Bash website: http://www.betibikebash.com/

303 Cycling caught up with Amy of the Yeti Betis to learn more about the event and why you (or your wife, or your daughter, or your sister) should participate. Registration is still open - you can sign up online or in person this Friday at Outdoor Divas.

+ Give us a brief reminder of why and how the event got started.

Ned Overand takes victory in the 40th addition of the Iron Horse Race while Mara Abbott cleans up in the women's field. Let's also not forget there was a mountain bike race in town that weekend as well!

Read about the Iron Horse Road Race

Read about the Iron Horse Mountain Bike Race

Full Coverage of all Iron Horse Events

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I have been working on this story for a while now (6+ months). Trying to gather information about the problem of doping in cycling in particular the problem in the amateur ranks.

One of the big questions is who actually does the drug testing. The drug testing is done by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Who is USADA?

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which began operations on October 1, 2000, is a non-governmental agency responsible for implementation of the World Anti-Doping Code in the United States. USADA's budget is funded by a U.S. federal grant and with revenue generated from dope-testing contracts between USADA and the USOC and other organizations.

The one big issue that Colorado has with this setup is that the local governing body is the American Cycling Association (ACA). The ACA is what is known as a Non-Governing Body (NGB). From people I have talked to that are familiar with the USADA and the ACA say there are two major hurdles if the ACA would ever want to implement a drug testing program:

• The USADA dealing with a NGB
• Cost

There are so many ways to approach anti-doping but nothing can take the place of unannounced or even pre-determined doping control (of top finishers).

I talked to a couple of people that have a very good understanding of the doping issue and in particular illegal performance enhancing drug use. I asked the question How wide spread do you think the problem is in amateur cycling? Both of them believe that the majority of dopers in the US are amateurs. This would make sense just by the shear number of riders that are amateurs. There are only so many professional riders out there.