Grueling Tour of Utah race lives up to its reputation

SALT LAKE CITY — After six days of racing, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah closed the books on another successful event — perhaps the best in the race's history.

Living up to its nickname as "America's Toughest Stage Race," the Tour of Utah threw everything it could at the nearly 150 professional and elite cyclists, which was too much to handle for many of them. Fewer than half of the starting field finished the race with an official result — the rest missed time cuts, crashed out or withdrew for various reasons.

One thing is for sure, though — the race is now a fixture on the American cycling calendar, and those racing in it want to see it thrive for years to come.

"It's definitely as hard a race as I've been in here in the United States," said Levi Leipheimer, a former Utahn who won the overall title this year and knows a few things about tough bike races. "While the Tour of California might have a stronger field because it's a UCI race, the Tour of Utah has some of the hardest racing you can find."

From the Stage 1 race that took racers from Ogden to Salt Lake City via the back roads and canyons of the Wasatch Mountains, to Sunday's epic 102-mile sufferfest over three categorized climbs, the Tour of Utah is designed to challenge the best. Even the Saturday evening criterium up and down Main Street in Park City was brutal.

"I've never raced a criterium that hard," said Jai Crawford, the winner of Sunday's stage. "That course was killer. It was hard just to stay with it. A lot of guys were just riding it out waiting for it to end."

Utah was well represented in the race. Darren Lill, who has called Utah home for the past few years, finished fifth overall. Burke Swindlehurst, who announced his probable retirement after the race, was 12th. Neopro Robbie Squire showed some amazing legs as he transitions from mountain bikes to road bikes and finished the race in 13th just ahead of Jeff Louder. Jonathon Mumford finished 52nd and another mountain bike pro, Mitchell Peterson, was 57th. Just completing the race was an accomplishment many of the pros considered a success.

If Tour of Utah organizers get their way, it might be even more challenging next season.

Because of the new UCI-rated Quiznos Pro Challenge in Colorado next August, the Tour of Utah will probably change its date in 2011 and possibly add a stage or two to extend the action and, with the blessing of the UCI, attract an even deeper field of racers coming to America to race either before or after the Colorado race.