More than 1,000 participants are expected to compete as Arizona hosts a national mountain bike race on the courses at McDowell Mountain Regional Park from Thursday through Sunday.

The event is one of only eight U.S. races in the 2005 Shimano NORBA National Mountain Bike Series, and it marks the first time the National Off Road Bike Association has chosen Arizona as a stop in the series.

“We had resurrected an old race that used to be called the Cactus Cup that was stopped in 1999 and brought it back in 2003 as the Desert Nova Classic,” said Jerry Sieve, director of the Nova Youth Cycling Foundation, a non-profit, Carefree-based group designed for younger riders.

Read More.