You feel sometimes like southern Utah is the step-child of the state. And Cedar City is the step-child of St. George. It just amazes me because there is so much beauty here. You just want people to realize how beautiful it is. In all the ways I could, I tried to leverage anything to be able to put my support behind Cedar City. – Eight-time Ironman champion Paula Newby-Fraser
CEDAR CITY — Were it not for a desire to see life’s back roads, Cedar City would not have had one of its toughest and accomplished advocates when Tour of Utah officials looked to extend the race to the state’s southern communities.
Each year, eight-time Ironman champion Paula Newby-Fraser and her husband, Paul Huddle, traveled from their San Diego home to Boulder, Colo., to train for several months.
One spring, they decided to take “the back way” to Boulder. They wanted to see Bryce Canyon and the surrounding desert communities, and so they wandered.
“I really don’t have the adjectives,” she said of trying to describe the views that still take her breath away now that she lives part-time in Cedar City. “When you ride the mountains down in southern Utah, the canyon from Brian Head, it’s so big, and it’s so jaw-droppingly beautiful, but in a completely different way from what (the riders) are going to see on the (Wasatch) Front. It’s so different down here, and I don’t believe many of the riders have been exposed to that.”
It was so stunning, she and Huddle decided to buy property and build a home in the hills above Cedar City.
“To be honest, we spend as much time as we can there,” said Newby-Fraser, who now works for Ironman and offered her Rolodex and influence in helping Cedar City officials persuade Tour of Utah officials to bring the tour to the home of Southern Utah University.
When trying to lure events to the community, officials often feel like it’s an uphill battle as most people see St. George’s bigger size as an advantage when hosting big events.
“You feel sometimes like southern Utah is the step-child of the state. And Cedar City is the step-child of St. George,” she said, rattling off names of those who did the heavy lifting in attracting the tour, including Cedar City Special Events Director Byron Linford. “It just amazes me because there is so much beauty here. You just want people to realize how beautiful it is. In all the ways I could, I tried to leverage anything to be able to put my support behind Cedar City.”
This year’s course will truly be a tour of Utah. It’s the longest course in the race’s history — more than 586 miles. There will be 43,000 vertical feet of climbing, including a new monster stretch over Boulder Mountain, which sits in Garfield and Wayne counties with an elevation of 11,317 feet. To the east sits Capitol Reef National Park, while the south slope offers riders a view of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The tour will start on Tuesday with a 112-mile stage that starts riders at Brian Head and finishes in Cedar City. Wednesday the tour will begin in Panguitch, the city and county seat of Garfield County, and travel 131 miles to Torrey.
In a press conference five months ago revealing the new routes, Steve Miller, president of Miller Sports Properties, said some of the small towns that will host the event weren’t aware it was even a possibility for them to do so.
“We’ve been welcomed with open arms,” he said. “We’re really, really excited.”
He admits they aren’t sure how many spectators will show up in places like Torrey, where the town’s population is less than 200 people. But that’s less important than the goal of the tour, which is to show the world what Utah has to offer.
Torrey sits just a few miles from Capital Reef National Park, and the hope of people like Miller and Newby-Fraser is that tourists see and then decide to visit.
Newby-Fraser said the Tour de France exposes some very small towns and villages to the world, and she believes the Tour of Utah will do the same.
Thursday’s route brings cyclists north with the least amount of climbing and traveling 119 miles from Richfield to Payson.
Friday’s stage four is a 33.8-mile circuit race in Salt Lake City, while stage five travels 113 miles from Snowbasin to Snowbird.
The sixth and final stage is the same as last year’s finish with a Park City start and a 79-mile loop that sends riders into Wasatch County where they make the brutal Empire Pass climb from Midway to Park City, with the race finishing on Main Street.
The race will have special broadcasts on KJZZ, ROOT Sports and Fox. The entire race will be streamed live on the Tour of Utah website (www.tourofutah.com). The race is being broadcast in 50 countries.
This year, a total of 17 Olympians representing 11 countries will race for various teams.
“An accomplished group of riders with impressive racing credentials will be competing in the Tour of Utah this year. In our ninth year, we have attracted our largest field of international athletes, representing 32 countries,” said Miller, who has nurtured the race from a small local event to a UCI event attracting worldwide attention. “Spectators can enjoy world-class competition from southern Utah to the Wasatch Front.”
Newby-Fraser is thrilled the cycling community will see what she did all those years ago on that trip from California to Colorado. Suddenly, Utah wasn’t just a state she needed to pass through, it became home. She and her husband host a mountain bike race in July each year, and she believes the hospitality will blow competitors and spectators away.
“This is a big notch for Cedar City,” she said. “The cycling world is very big, and a lot of fans will see this. … There is so much here, and it’s just so beautiful. This will showcase what’s here.”
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Email: adonaldson@deseretnews.com