Utah crowns a handful of state champions Saturday at the Darek Leyde Memorial Criterium.
The event featured more than 300 cyclists circling Pioneer Park, with some average speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour, tempting fate and trying to out-race each other.
By the time the day's races were finished, Cameron Hoffman was the victor in the men's Pro 1-2 race as he jumped out with a nine-man break away and had enough kick left in him to hold off all challengers.
The Bikers-Edge-sponsored cyclist held off Canyon Bicycles/Sienna Development's Michael Booth at the line. Ali Goulet (FFKR Architects) was third.
In the women's 1-2-3 race, Tiffany Pezzulo held off a big charge from her Park City Ironman teammate Kirsten Kotval to win the state title. Ski Utah's Laura Howat showed she is still a force to contend with on two wheels as she rounded out the podium in third.
Cyclesmith's Justin Healy won the Cat 3 title while Porcupine/Specialized's David Hardward claimed the Master's 35 title and followed that up with a fourth-place showing in the Pro 1-2 race.
All told, 11 state championships were awarded to senior racers and another handful of trophies was handed out to the juniors.
Next up for the roadies is the Bear Lake Classic road race and team time trial this weekend.
RUN FOR THE SHERWOOD HILLS:
While the road aficionados were tearing things up in downtown Salt Lake City, the best mountain bikers in the state hit the single-track trails of Sherwood Hills Resort near Logan.
The Intermountain Cup series made its fourth stop of the season, and the MonaVie/Cannondale team again dominated the race.
Alex Grant and Bart Gillespie rode away from the field to take the top two spots on the podium, while Burke Swindlehurst — typically one of the best road racers in the country — made a detour from the pavement and changed uniforms. Swindlehurst — who beat Lance Armstrong to the finish line just two weeks ago in a mountaintop finish at the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico as a member of the Bissell Pro Cycling team — hopped into the MonaVie kit for the mountain-bike race and placed third.
Park City's Heather Holmes, riding for Kenda Pro Cycling, held off Sandy's Erika Powers (Revolution/Peak Fasteners) for the pro women's victory.
The mountain-bike crowd will gather again this weekend at Soldier Hollow in Midway for the seventh annual Hammerfest.
WIND FOILS TRIATHLETES:
Utah's first major triathlon of the season was held last weekend in St. George, but high winds turned the swim, bike and run event into a duathlon.
The early-morning winds created choppy water, and rather than take a risk with several hundreds swimmers diving into the high waves, organizers opted to double up the run portion of the race and make it a run, bike and run event.
Heath Thurston won the men's Olympic distance race, covering the 10k run, 20k bike and 10k run race with a time of 1:46:37. Weston Woodward was second, at 1:47:14, while Randy Olsen was hot on his heels at 1:47:27.
Cherell Jordin took top honors in the women's race, at 2:00:31, with Kara Bankhead (2:01:06) and Sue Pope (2:06:20 rounding out the podium.
In the sprint distance race, Bruce Balch finished the race in 1:12:49, easily outpacing Mike Olsen's 1:14:28 time.
Utah triathletes will get another shot to test themselves in coming weeks. The Women of Steel Triathlon is this weekend in American Fork and is a sold-out, women-only event.
Those who ended up disappointed with the wind-hampered St. George triathlon will get another chance on May 23, at the Stansbury Triathlon in Tooele County.
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com