Winning Spirit Magazine September - October 2014 September - October 2014 | Page 4

Michael Schär, of Team BMC Racing,
is the first to cross the line at the
stage 2 finish in Torrey, Utah.
THE 2014 TOUR OF UTAH
7 D A Y S • 7 5 3 M I L E S • 5 7 , 8 6 3 F E E T O F C L I M B I N G
The 2014 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah reached new heights
for its 10th anniversary with a record 753 miles of racing
and 57,863 feet of climbing. The event stretched from Cedar
City and the iconic red-rock country of Southern Utah to
new territory in the north at Powder Mountain Ski Resort
and Evanston, Wyoming. The event also expanded from six
days to seven, giving the cyclists and the worldwide viewing
audience even more of Utah to marvel over. The race fielded
122 athletes from 16 pro cycling teams representing 24
countries.
Tom Danielson, the TOU champion for the second consecutive
year, completed the seven stages in 30 hours, 18 minutes
and four seconds. American Chris Horner of Lampre-Merida
repeated with a second-place
overall finish, the same result
as 2013, just 52 seconds behind
Danielson. Horner’s teammate,
Colombian Winner Anacona
Gomez, moved onto the final
podium in third, 1:43 back. Only
three seconds separated Gomez
from Ben Hermans (Belgium) of
BMC Racing, who moved to fourth
in the General Classification.
The 2014 edition of “America’s
Toughest Stage Race” attracted
some of the top pro cyclists from all over the globe, including
the 2011 winner of the Tour de France, Australian Cadel
Evans of BMC Racing. “I don’t know if you want to make it
any harder if you want more people to come back,” laughed
Evans. “It is difficult, but I’d say the quality of the racing and
the motivation of the field here is what made it really hard. It
was really just solid racing all week which made it really tough.”
Evans scored two stage victories in this year’s event.
Organizers of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah announced that
the international cycling event will return in 2015, scheduled
for August 3-9. Next year’s Tour of Utah will continue as a
seven-day stage race.
“It was a great week of racing for our 10th anniversary of
the Tour of Utah,” said Steve
Miller, president of Miller Sports
Properties, which owns and
operates the race. “For the 2015
edition, we’ll probably look to have
another ProTour team or two. Our
goal is to continue to elevate the
level of competition. This year
was at an all-time high in terms
of competitiveness, but I hope we
haven’t hit our ceiling yet in terms
of the quality of the field we can
bring to Utah.” WS