Tara Llanes

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous ever changing co-sponsors. Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question. When possible exact dates are used.

• Aussie Wear Early April 1989-December 1990
• Haro Designs: December 1990-December 1991 The ABA Silverdollar nationals in Reno, Nevada held on January 12, 1991 was Llanes's first race for Haro/Crupi.[11]
• Haro/Crupi: December 1991-December 1994

• Giant Bicycles/Pearl Izumi: 2006–Present

Note: Listed are District, State/Provincial/Department, Regional, National and International titles. Only sanctioning bodies that were active during the racer's career are listed.

National Bicycle League (NBL)

• 1992 15 Girls Grandnational Champion

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

• 1989 12 Girls and 12 & Under Girls Cruiser National No.2
• 1990 California District 3 (CA-3) Girls No.1
• 1990 13 Girls Grand National Champion
• 1990 13 Girls National No.1
• 1991 and 1992 CA-3 Girls Cruiser No.1

• "1990 District Number Ones"[12] One of several profiles of the ABA's 1990 district number ones written in an autobiographical tense.

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous co-sponsors. Primary sponsorships can be verified by MTB press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question. When possible exact dates are given.

• Haro Bicycles: 1994-1996
• Rotech: 1996-December 1997 She turned pro with this sponsor

• Rotech: 1996-December 1997
• Specialized: December 1997-December 2000
• Yeti/Pearl Izumi: December 2000-October 2002 The Yeti/Pearl Izumi team was dissolved after the 2002 season.[17]
• Giant Bicycles/Pearl Izumi: December 2002–Present Despite her devastating injury Giant Bicycles renewed her contract and they will be working with her on her efforts to recover.[18][19]

National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA)

• 1995 Junior National Downhill Champion

USA Cycling

ESPN Extreme (X) Games:

• 1999 Biker X Winter X Games Champion (Gold Medal)

Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)

• 1999 Bronze Medal Dual Slalom World Cup Champion
• 2000 Silver Medal Dual Slalom World Cup Champion
• 2001 Bronze Medal Dual Slalom World Cup Champion
• 2000 Dual Silver Medal World Champion
• 2001 Dual Bronze Medal World Champion
• 2001 4-Cross World Cup Champion
• 2004, 2005 4-Cross Bronze Medal World Champion
• 2004 4-Cross Silver Medal World Cup Champion
• 2006 4-Cross Bronze Medal World Cup Champion

National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA)

• 2002 Dual Slalom National Champion
• 2002, 2004 U.S. National 4-Cross Champion
• 2006 National Downhill Champion

USA Cycling

• 2006 National Champion.

• Broke Collar Bone in 1996 at Washington National.
• Broke Collar Bone in the Downhill at the UCI World Cup Canmore, Alberta, Canada on the weekend of July 3–4, 1999. She came back only a few weeks after the accident, albeit she missed two World Cup events during her lay up.[20]
• She suffered two concussions in 2000.[17]
• She suffered numerous injuries during a practice run at the NORBA mountain cross race on Chapman Hill in Durango, Colorado on August 3, 2002. She crashed on one of the very large double jumps. She suffered a broken left collarbone, three fractured ribs, two partially collapsed lungs one of which was severely bruised, a torn MCL in her right knee.[21]
• Suffered a broken left foot in an automobile accident on June 16, 2003 on a road in Pennsylvania. She was traveling in the Giant Team truck a Ford F350 which was towing the 30-foot (9.1 m) team trailer on her way to Vermont for the third stop in the NORBA NCS series. Rescue had to cut Tara out of the vehicle. Three other occupants in the automobile Jared Rando and Dustin Adams had only minor scrapes. The team mechanic, Matt Duniho who was driving needed stitches. Llanes's foot got jammed under the seat in front of her breaking it.[22] She went to the hospital to be treated and flew back to Southern California the next day while her teammates continued onto Vermont in the team's backup vehicle.[23] Llanes said of her injury:

“I went back to my foot specialist and he looked over the CT Scan,”she wrote. “It looks as though it's just the one bone in my foot. The cuneiform2 and 3 bone. I also told him my two smaller toes were hurting pretty badso he x-rayed them again and sure enough they were both broken. Not that it makes much of a difference. They were aligned just fine so he didn't'have to reset anything. It will still take 4-6 weeks."[24]

On September 1, 2007, Llanes crashed at Beaver Creek, Colorado, host to the Jeep King of the Mountain Finale. The accident happened on the second to last straight down the Dual Slalom course as she raced head-to-head against Jill Kintner in the semifinals. Llanes hit an obstacle wrong and the bicycle landed nose first on the ground. She was thrown over the handlebars and onto her head and then landed on her back, suffering massive and severe lower back trauma, suffering a C-7 fracture and L-1 damage to her vertebrae, and paralyzing her lower extremities. She was first rushed to Vail Valley Medical Center and then was airlifted to Denver Health Hospital. She underwent seven hours of surgery but still had no feeling from the waist down. According to the surgeons who worked on her, the condition is most likely permanent.[18][25][26] Llanes recalls the moment of the accident:

"This was my job and I was blessed. Then my life and everything I had dreamed of and accomplished flashed before my eyes as I laid there on the ground trying to understand why I was in such pain and why my legs just wouldn't move."[27]

Llanes continues to undergo intensive rehabilitation and as of late 2008 she could move her left leg. Her stated goal is to get back into competitive racing again.[28] As she stated in an interview with pedalpushersonline.com:

PPO: "You seem so positive to me and so gung ho. What drives you? Is it just in you?"
Tara: "I think it just all has to do with me wanting to walk again. When this happened I was completely devastated. I mean, this has been my life since I was 11-years-old. This is what I know and it's what I love. It's what I absolutely, without a doubt love. I mean, not being able to ride my bike again for the rest of my life... It would crush me. And so for me, I can't have a negative thought in my mind. I can't because you know doctors can come in, and they can walk in... and say, "you're never going to walk again." But, you know what, to me so much of it is mind over matter. They do a test the first week that you're here in Craig and in the test they deemed me "complete". What complete means is that basically you're not going to walk again. You know what? My legs have started to move again, especially my left leg. One of my doctors was like, "holy shit!". I said, "you can take your 'complete' and shove it!" Not to her of course..."[29]