The top ten of the general classification at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah after the stage 3 individual time trial is filled with familiar names – Mancebo, Baldwin, Bookwalter. One name in that top ten is making waves in the Beehive State this week – that of fifth-place Kelly Benefit Strategies rookie Matthew Busche.
The blistering heat that has marked the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah gave way to blistering times Friday night as the stage 3 individual time trial rolled onto the grand prix track at the Miller Motorsports Park near Tooele, Utah. Tom Zirbel (Bissell) redeemed his sub-par performance in Tuesday’s prologue and returned to the form he has exhibited for most of 2009. Zirbel punished his cranks for 14.5 km to put in the fastest time of the night in 17:00, 14 and 19 seconds ahead of BMC teammates Ian McKissick and Brent Bookwalter, respectively.
It was nearly déjà vu in the finale of stage 2 at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Wednesday as Darren Lill (Team Type 1) sped away from a select group of chasers on the climb to Mt. Nebo. Lill was not to be denied the stage win as he was by Garmin’s Blake Caldwell in stage 2 in 2008, staying away on the slopes of the highest point in the Wasatch for the solo win.
Francisco Mancebo and Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) pulled off a one-two finish in the first stage of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah on Wednesday. The tandem sprang away from the fadiing peloton on the climb above East Canyon Dam and extended their lead to a maximum of 35 seconds before coming through the finish on the outskirts of Salt Lake City together, 25 seconds ahead of a disorganized chase group that contained overnight leader Brent Bookwalter (BMC). The result vaulted Mancebo into the overall lead over Sevilla by 9 seconds.
Defending champion Jeff Louder's BMC Racing Team put a resounding stamp on the first day of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah in Tuesday evening's prologue, placing four riders in the top ten with Brent Bookwalter taking the win beneath the Utah State Capitol Building. Bookwalter blazed through the foothills above Salt Lake City to win the 2.8-mile prologue with a time of 6:12. Garmin-Slipstream’s Dave Zabriskie stopped the clock two seconds off Bookwalter’s pace in 6:14. Ian McKissick (BMC) rounded out the podium less than half a second outside of Zabriskie’s time.
Over the years Jeff Louder (BMC) has been a pretty noticeable guy at The Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic – he’s been on too many stage podiums to count, and has finished in the top three overall five times, including third overall at the 2009 race, which concluded July 26. At this year’s race, he stood out in another way – he had an odd circular pink and black object stuck to the top of his helmet.
The National Racing Calendar rolls into Salt Lake City Tuesday evening as the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah returns in 2009 to challenge the mountain goats of the North American peloton. The five-stage race covers 325 miles and features many of the most demanding climbs in northern Utah.
Utah Jazz point guard Deron Williams and Floyd Landis (OUCH) will challenge one another in their respective sports at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, on Friday, at 6:30 p.m. Landis will school Williams on the intricacies of a time trial and Williams will then challenge Landis to a three-point shoot out. Both media and the general public are invited to attend the event. Admission is free. The challenge is a promotional event in advance of the 2009 Tour of Utah, scheduled from August 18-23 throughout central Utah.
A short-term agreement between the UCI and USA Cycling has made room for Team BMC, the only American UCI-registered Pro Continental team, to field full squads at national-level stage races for the remainder of the season. The Swiss-American team will now be allowed to field a full team at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic, the Cascade Classic, the Tour of Elk Grove and the Tour of Utah. All are part of USA Cycling’s National Racing Calendar series.
The Tour of Utah (August 18-23) will feature at least eight professional teams this year, including: BMC Racing; Garmin-Slipstream, OUCH-Maxxis, Bissell, Team Type 1, Land Rover-ORBEA, Fly V Australia, and Colavita-Sutter Home. In addition, eight amateur teams are confirmed: Trek/Livestrong, Cal Giant, Bobs, Rio Grande, Waste Management, Ciclismo Racing, ZteaM Cycling, and Team RideClean.
2009 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah is an invitation-only, NRC event. SALT LAKE CITY – March 23, 2009 – Tour of Utah Executive Director Terry McGinnis announced today that the Tour is healthy and expanding this year, adding another stage to an already outstanding line-up. This year, America’s top racers are being invited to compete in what is widely regarded as the toughest stage race on the National Racing Calendar (NRC), featuring more climbing than any other bicycle race in the United States with a prologue, five stages, and 325 miles over six days for a $45,000 prize purse.
It’s said that racing in the yellow jersey gives a rider wings. It’s also said that there’s no motivation like racing in front of friends and family. Both notions proved true Sunday during the final stage of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, in which Utah native Jeff Louder of BMC Racing overcame a seven-second deficit to Garmin-Chipotle’s Blake Caldwell to take the overall victory by eight seconds.
To the cheers of a partisan crowd, BMC’s Jeff Louder won the queen stage of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Saturday, a grueling slog from Park City to Snowbird Ski Resort that delivered 15,000 feet of climbing and three KOM points over 98.7 miles. At Snowbird Ski Resort at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon the Salt Lake City native finished seconds ahead of Garmin-Chipotle’s race leader Blake Caldwell, who finished second on the stage. Team Type 1’s Glen Chadwick, less than one week off a return flight from Beijing, finished third.
Before the Tour of Utah's stage 4 twilight criterium began Friday, the start line was buzzing with the news that Toyota-United would not be returning in 2009. “Maybe some guys are more surprised than others, but I’ve been in this game long enough to know that the sponsorship search is not an easy one,” Toyota-United team director Scott Moninger said, adding that he didn’t foresee other domestic teams being able to absorb Toyota’s roster into its own.
Disproving critics that downplayed his Successful Living team’s chances of taking victory at the national level in 2008, Argentinean Ricardo Escuela won the stage 3 criterium of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Friday evening in downtown Salt Lake City. It was Successful Living’s third NRC win of the 2008 season.
The top stage racers in the country wasted no time Thursday in tearing apart the general classification at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. A select group of 13 riders emerged during the day’s third and final mountain pass as the most likely contenders for overall victory, while Garmin-Chipotle’s 24-year-old Blake Caldwell took his second career Tour of Utah stage win. For the second consecutive day, the stage winner came out of a small breakaway, and for the second consecutive day the winner wore a Garmin-Chipotle jersey, which was then traded for yellow atop the podium.
Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle) bridged to an early breakaway and then won the Tour of Utah's first stage after working a day-long break. Donald's win in the 101-mile flat-to-rolling stage gives him the early overall lead in the stage race. Second place went to Sheldon Denny of the Fan Sports Network team; third was Brad White of Successful Living. Thursday's second stage is hillier: the University Health Care Road Race, at 84.6 miles, has four climbs. It begins in downtown Ogden and ends in Salt Lake City.
It’s not often that a domestic event strives for UCI stage-race designation, falls short on sponsorship, is cancelled and then returns the following year as the country’s highest-elevation stage race. But that’s exactly what the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah has gone through in recent years. After going national in 2006, the Tour of Utah was postponed last year when race owners determined the event was not ready due to fiscal troubles.
The 2008 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah presented by Zions Bank; a NRC, Pro 1 Men invitation only, five-day stage race featuring a $75,000 purse, will be closing for team applications April 15th so that they can finalize the field for the August 13-17 event. Any interested team that has not yet applied for consideration can do so by going to www.tourofutah.com and clicking on the Teams page. Team selection will be announced the following week. Contact Terry McGinnis at terrymac@xmission.com for more information.
The 2007 Tour of Utah will be canceled due to a lack of sponsorship, and its executive director has stepped down, the race’s board of directors announced Friday in Salt Lake City. The six-day, six-stage, 400-mile race had been scheduled for July 2-7. “In assessing our current staff, meeting personally with community stakeholders and business leaders, and observing the Tour of California bicycle race, I believe that we have the foundation in place to build a well-respected and successful event,” said board chairman Greg Miller. “We hit the ground running in January, and after getting up to
Press ReleaseTour of Utah hires Executive Director, Changes Dates SALT LAKE CITY (December 27, 2006) – America’s toughest bicyclerace has restructured its management committee to include a newly formed501(c)(3), a board of directors and former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilsonas Executive Director to steer the race to the next level.The race has also changed its date of operation. The 2007 race willfeature eight stages and will run June 30 through July 7. The race wasformerly set to run August 12-19.Since last year’s race, ownership has been transferred to Utah CyclingPartnership, Inc. dba
The 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah concluded Saturday with the much-anticipated Stage Six Snowbird Road Race, won by TIAA CREF rider Blake Caldwell. The 91-mile stage included three very difficult climbs and more than 12,000 feet of climbing as it traversed the Wasatch Mountains from Deer Valley Resort to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. The decisive third climb of the day, in Little Cottonwood Canyon affected the final General Classification as Scott Moninger took the yellow jersey from teammate and hometown favorite Jeff Louder. Team TIAA CREF forced an early break with four riders in
Stage Five of the 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah entertained an estimated crowd of 30,000 fans in downtown Salt Lake City, Friday night, as the Twinlab Circuit Race tested riders with six laps of a 6.3 mile course that included a very steep climb to the Utah State Capitol before plunging and twisting back to the wide avenues of downtown. A wide and slightly downhill finishing straight encouraged sprints and attacks, making for a very fast race, won by Toyota-United rider Chris Baldwin. The stage was slotted between two of the toughest climbing stages in American cycling, but was not the
Stage Two of the 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, the Steve Williams Memorial Road Race, was a hot and dry 97-mile stage from Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, to the newly constructed Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele. Riders battled shifting winds and temperatures topping 100 degrees as they raced along a portion of the historic Pony Express Trail through Utah's West Desert. The race began with a series of gradual climbs out of Lehi, then onto rolling terrain as it moved toward the finish at the motorsports park. Attacks were launched almost immediately as the race climbed out of Lehi,
What a week for Davitamon-Lotto. Or, as team rider Chris Horner mightsay, what a week for Davitamon-Lotto, huh? First, Fast Freddie Rodriguez summons all of the gremlin power availablein the universe to take a stagewin at the Tour de Georgia on April 21. Unfortunately, Casey Gibson’sshutter speed was faster than Freddie’s supernatural changeling powers,and his ability to transform into a gremlin was revealed to the cyclingworld. Still, it’s a small price to pay to snap his streak of bad luckand second- and third-place sprint finishes that dated back to the 2005season. Next up was
TOUR OF UTAH ANNOUNCES RACE ROUTE FOR 2005 STAGE RACELEHI, UT - The Tour of Utah has announced the race route forthe 2005 stage race, hosted by Thanksgiving Point.Scheduled for May 26 – 30, 2005, the Tour of Utah is a five-day, six-stageevent, taking professional and amateur cyclists along a course spanningthe Salt Lake and Utah Valleys. While covering almost 500 kilometers,cyclists will be riding as far west as Tooele, Utah, as far south as Santaquin,Utah, and climbing to an altitude of nearly 9,000 feet. Althoughthe first two stages are reserved only for professional categories,