Tour of Utah: A Look Back at 2014

Officially, the Tour of Utah Women's Edition in 2014 was only one race held on Wednesday, Aug 6th. But unofficially, the teams made their way to Utah for two races, just like this year. Nicky Wangsgard created the Cedar City Grand Prix which took place Monday during Stage 1 while the Men were out on course. Just like this year's races, it was a criterium and took advantage of the large crowds already in town for the men's start/finish.

I drove to Cedar City on Saturday and helped with a little bit of everything, it was an amazing experience. There was a Sunday morning ride with the pros, team potluck, enrollment & team meeting, course setup, social media, and more. All the hard work was worth it and I'd like to think our success led the Tour of Utah to add another official women's race this year.

The winner of the Cedar City Grand Prix was Alison Powers from United Healthcare. Quite fitting for the reigning National Crit, Road, and Time Trial Champion. United Healthcare also won Most Aggressive Team and it's likely Coryn Rivera would have won if her bike wasn't damaged on the final lap. Alison Powers is now retired, but Coryn and United Healthcare are on their way to Utah. Alongside Alison on the podium were Sam Schneider and Tina Pic. As you know from yesterday's blog; Coryn, Sam, and Tina are all in the NCC Top 5 and in top form.

Cedar City Grand Prix Podium - Alison, Sam, Tina
United Healthcare wins Most Aggressive
After a day off and time to travel from Cedar City to Salt Lake City, the women were ready for their 2nd race and official Tour of Utah Women's Edition. The men have been racing the Tour of Utah since 2004, but 2014 was finally a chance for the women to show their stuff. I attended and helped with live race updates on twitter out on course. The men were finishing Stage 3 at Miller Motorsports Park, so the women raced laps around the course and finished just before the men arrived.

Tour of Utah Women's Edition 2014 - Miller Motorsports Park
Coryn Rivera got the win making it a sweep for United Healthcare. Mandy Heintz and Meredith Miller joined her on the podium and are also on their way to Utah to try and improve on last year's results. Coryn will definitely have her work cut out for her with so much talent racing in Logan and Ogden.

Christina Gokey-Smith (Pepper Palace) is another TOUWE threat and a great person to hang out with

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