Mark Weir participated in a back-to-back weekend of benefit events in October, finishing with more than his usual impressive results in both. After completing Levi Leipheimer's King Ridge GranFondo ride that benefitted local Santa Rosa charities and the city's bid for a stage of the Amgen Tour of California, Weir traveled to the Northstar at Tahoe resort where he placed third in the Race for Tara. Getting on the podium for the downhill competition was a greater achievement, knowing he was supporting the continued care and recovery of Tara Llanes, who survived a horrific crash at the 2007 Jeep King of the Mountain finale in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Llanes was left with no feeling from the waist down after enduring a seven-hour surgery to her back and spinal cord. Race proceeds will be allocated to the Tara Llanes Road to Recovery Fund and the Christopher Reeve Foundation to find a cure for spinal cord injury.