Tour Of Utah Cycling Coming To Bear Lake?

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. November, 2013.  Todd Hageman and Jenn Andres, representatives of the  Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, a professional cycling race told city council members that they were considering holding a stage of the race on August 5-6, 2014 in Garden City.     They are exploring options for stage two.  Stage 1 will start in Logan.  They are in the early discovery phase.  They feel that they bring economic impact to the area.  700 people travel with the racers.  They have been working with Melinda Hislop of the Bear Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.  The Tour of Utah has a national and  international audience and is shown on European TV and is a good  way to highlight Utah.  It takes $1 million to put it on and raises $17 million.  This brings in people from all over the world and gives the host city a boost in advertising.

The mayor said that every room is already booked for next year in August when they are planning and the traffic is terrible.  Hageman said that because these are professional riders they have rolling road closures.  If it starts here it would go around lake and then to Logan. The pelotons are very close together and they would be in and out quite quickly.   This stage of race would start August 5^th when the set up crew and the hospitality crew would set up.   Many events will start the night before. The Tour brings EMT and ambulances as well as sheriff deputies assigned to the race. Interestingly, the tour start might take an hour and then the bikers will be out of Garden City very early in the morning of August 6.  There is no charge to host the race, but they will need rooms for the 70 staff members and a breakfast for the crew.  The city needs to  send a letter of interest.    “It would be a good thing,”said Mayor Spuhler.   Andres said that they will  need  a good spectator base which will be available in the summer here.   

 

From TourofUtah.com:

"The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah has grown considerably in the past nine years. The Tour of Utah is now a highly-prized six-day sporting event and festival with international significance. Some of the best professional cyclists in the world will battle across the state, from the lush forests and red rock spires in the south to the urban corridor and epic peaks along Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains in the north. What has become "America’s Toughest Stage Race " for the pros has become one of the most scenic and entertaining sporting events for spectators in August.

The Tour of Utah was purchased in 2007 by Utah Cycling Partnership, a unique and separate entity from the other properties that make up the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies. Utah Cycling Partnership re-launched the cycling event in 2008, which included sanctioning by USA Cycling Inc. as a National Racing Calendar elite event. For the next three years, the field of competitors continued to strengthen and draw record crowds to watch riders who were Tour de France stage winners, world champions and Olympians. Now a "Queen Stage" had become a firm fixture on the American cycling calendar, for racers and spectators alike, providing an epic day of climbing on the steeper side of the infamous Mt. Nebo and finishing near the summit of Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. Prize money had risen to $45,000 total.

In 2011 the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah was elevated by the international governing body for the sport of cycling, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), to be part of its UCI America Tour. The Tour of Utah is now sanctioned by both USA Cycling, Inc. and the UCI. This provides an international spotlight for Utah and for all host venues on the route. A total of 128 athletes representing 16 professional teams are invited to race as a UCI event. This now includes the world’s best ProTeams, which typically race in the Tour de France. The athletes compete for UCI points, five award jerseys and cash purse of more than $125,000.

With the big teams and all-star field of athletes come bigger crowds and more national and international media coverage. In 2012, out-of-state spectators at the Tour of Utah contributed as much as $14 million in direct economic impact for the state of Utah. It was also the second year for national television coverage on FOX Sports Network and live webcasting to a worldwide audience. FOX Sports Network aired 12 hours of live coverage over the six days of racing, reaching an average of 67 million homes.

"Outdoor recreation is a big part of what we do… Utah is the ‘State of Sport,’" said Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert before the start of the 2011 Tour of Utah. "It’s another way to see Utah… we’ve got the beautiful vistas & venues that make it so attractive, I think, not only for competitors, but as a visual, broadcast throughout this country and in other nations."