The number of riders in tonight’s Blitz to the Barrel is the only thing about the race that is small.

Fewer than 40 invited mountain bikers will bomb down trails from Wanoga Sno-park southwest of Bend, through Tetherow Golf Club, then down to the finish at 10 Barrel Brewing Company in west Bend.

But everything else about the fourth annual race is big: big names, big money, big prizes, big jumps, big beers, and big arms. (After the men’s and women’s winners chug a 20-ounce craft brew at 10 Barrel, the competitors move on to the Blitz Arm Wrestling Championship.)

The Blitz to the Barrel’s cash purse is $20,000, the second-biggest mountain bike race purse in the country, according to Blitz race promoter Erik Eastland.

Winners take home $3,000 each.

The Whiskey Off Road in Prescott, Ariz., features a $40,000 purse, of which $6,500 goes to each of the winners.

“I want to move Blitz to the Barrel to be $40,000 next year,” Eastland says. “I feel so bad for these guys, all this dedication and commitment, and a race is so hard, and they come back and they win about $39.”

Eastland is able to offer that kind of payout not from race entry fees, but from local sponsors who love cycling.

“I have to depend on everyone (cycling enthusiasts) in our community, who have been great,” Eastland says. “The first year is hard. The second year wasn’t that hard, because people (sponsors) see it’s good for the community and for their name. They appreciate doing it, and I think everyone knows what they’re growing here.”

Bend’s Adam Craig, a 2008 Olympian, has won the last two Blitzes. Other local contenders include Carl Decker and Ryan Trebon. Also expected to give Craig a challenge are Canadian Geoff Kabush, who finished eighth in the London Olympics, and Australian Josh Carlson, Craig’s teammate on the Giant Factory Off-Road team.

Women’s favorites include Kelli Emmett, of Colorado Springs, Colo., New Zealand Olympian Rosara Joseph, Portland’s Alice Pennington, and Bend’s Serena Bishop Gordon.

Tetherow is the best place for spectators, as lead cyclists will launch off a feature near the clubhouse called the “Blitz Banzai Death Drop.”

Says Eastland: “I have always looked at things like, if I want to do them, I want to do them big.”