2011 Tour of Utah - 5 WorldTour Teams
Confirmed
9 Teams Added to the Field for August Tour - Garmin, Liquigas add international
world class fire power to the final field of 16 teams and 128 riders to dispute
tour crown...
UCI 2.1 August 9-14
The 2011 edition of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah professional cycling
stage race will now feature a total of five UCI ProTeams, and a total field of
16 teams from around the globe.
Four international squads, including Liquigas-Cannondale and Garmin-Cervélo,
and five domestic teams were added this week by race organizers. Taking place
August 9-14 using six different Host Venues across northern Utah, “America’s
Toughest Stage RaceTM” will be the first UCI 2.1-rated
stage race for ProTeams in the U.S. following the Tour de France.
In the final field for Tour of Utah, six of the teams (all the UCI ProTeams
and Geox-TMC) just completed the Giro d’Italia, one of the three Grand Tours of
Europe. Eleven of the confirmed teams competed at the Amgen Tour of California
in May. And, the five UCI ProTeams will be competing in July at the Tour de
France. The final field for Tour of Utah includes 11 teams registered in the
United States, and other teams represent Canada, Italy, Great Britain, New
Zealand and Spain.
UCI ProTeams:
(world rankings as of May 30, 2011)
HTC-Highroad (USA), No. 1 on World Tour
Team RadioShack (USA), No. 4 on World Tour
BMC Racing Team (USA), No. 7 on World Tour
Team Garmin-Cervélo (USA), No. 9 on World Tour
Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA), No. 13 on World Tour
UCI Pro Continental Teams:
(rankings as of May 23, 2011)
Geox-TMC (ESP), No. 11 on UCI Europe Tour
Team Type 1 – sanofi-aventis (USA), No. 16 on UCI Europe Tour
Team SpiderTech powered by C10 (CAN), No. 15 on UCI America Tour
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling (USA), No. 3 NRC and 13 on UCI America Tour
UCI Continental Team, America Tour Confirmed:
Bissell Pro Cycling (USA), No. 1 NRC team
Endura Racing (GBR), No. 22 on UCI America Tour
Jamis/Sutter Home Pro Cycling (USA), No. 9 NRC team
Kelly Benefit Strategies – OptumHealth (USA), No. 14 NRC team
PureBlack Racing (NZL), No. 5 NRC team and No. 4 on UCI Oceania tour
RealCyclist.com Pro Cycling (USA), No. 2 NRC team
Trek-LIVESTRONG U23 (USA), No. 7 NRC team
Each domestic and international professional cycling team will compete with a
maximum of eight riders per team. The athletes will compete for six days across
the mountains, buttes and plateaus of Utah, vying for UCI points, award jerseys
and $116,000 in prize money. Professional teams competing in the Tour of Utah
will announce their rosters later in the summer. The Tour of Utah was elevated
by the international governing body of the sport of cycling (UCI) to be one of
just three 2.1-rated, or higher, world-class stage races in the U.S. The Tour of
Utah is the second largest of these three races.
In early
April, Tour of Utah organizers announced the first seven teams that had been
confirmed to participate in this year’s stage race, including BMC Racing,
HTC-Highroad, and Team RadioShack. The addition of two more ProTeams,
Garmin-Cervélo and Liquigas-Cannondale, and three more UCI Professional
Continental teams, Team Type 1 – sanofi-aventis, Team SpiderTech powered by C10
and UnitedHealthcare, validates the strongest international field of
professional athletes in the seven-year history of the Tour of Utah.
The cream of the crop of Continental teams, which focus on USA Cycling’s
National Racing Calendar, are provided an opportunity in Utah to go head to head
with the bigger teams that focus on international races. Six teams in the field
are ranked in the Top 10 on the NRC team standings.
“The elevation of the Tour of Utah to a 2.1-rated UCI stage race this year
makes it possible to include the best teams in the world, and across North
America, to compete on the challenging terrain of the Wasatch Front. All of our
spectators, corporate partners and volunteers will be rewarded this year with
the best field yet, a showcase for international cycling here in Utah,” said
Steve Miller, president of the Utah Cycling
Partnership, which owns the Tour of Utah.
Garmin-Cervélo
Based in the U.S., Team Garmin-Cervélo has raced at the Tour of Utah as early as
2006, when it was known as Team TIAA-CREF. For 2011, the team already has
overall wins at Tour Down Under and Tour of Qatar. The team features Americans
Tom Danielson, Christian Vande Velde, and Ryder Hesjedal, who all finished in
the overall Top 10 of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California, with Danielson on the
podium in third place.
Among the other fastmen are Tyler Farrar, from Washington, who won four
stages at Grand Tours last year (two each at Vuelta a España and Giro), and Utah
native David Zabriskie, who is the only American cyclist to have won stages at
all three Grand Tours. Zabriskie won this year’s time trial at the Amgen Tour of
California and claimed his sixth national time trial championship this past
weekend. Zabriskie raced as an individual in the 2009 Tour of Utah and finished
second in the Prologue.
Liquigas-Cannondale
The Italian pro squad, Liquigas-Cannondale squad finished 2010 in second place
in the UCI world rankings, boosted by wins at the Giro by Ivan Basso and Vuelta
by Vincenzo Nibali, both top Italian all-rounders. This ProTeam had an
impressive 39 victories throughout the year. 2011 marks the team’s debut at the
Tour of Utah. The first Americans to sign with the squad include Tim Duggan,
from Colorado, and Ted King, from New Hampshire. Duggan had Top 20 results at
Tour of Austria and Tour of Missouri in 2009. King was a bronze medalist at the
2011 USA Cycling Pro Road Race national championship, just his third year as a
pro. Sprinter Peter Sagan of Slovenia earned the Best Young Rider designation at
the 2011 Amgen Tour of California for a stage win and two second place finishes.
Geox-TMC
An Italian shoe company (Geox) and a multi-national producer of electronic
transformers (TMC) joined forces to give a new look to a Spanish team that
started in 2004 as Saunier Duval-Prodir. Geox-TMC is a UCI Pro Continental team
that primarily races on the UCI Europe Tour. This year it got a big boost with
the acquisitions of Grand Tour winners Denis Menchov of Russia and Carlos Sastre
of Spain. The team has a number of early-season wins in Europe, including the
Team Classification title at Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. 2011 represents the
team’s first visit to the Tour of Utah.
Endura Racing
Now in its second season, Endura Racing is a British UCI Continental team. The
team roster has a number of British riders, including multiple Olympic and World
Champion Rob Hayles. New additions to the team this year include experienced
Grand Tour athletes Iker Camaño of Spain, Paul Voss of Germany, and British
track standout Chris Pritchard. Also a first-time entrant for the Tour of Utah,
Endura Racing has two overall wins to start 2011, at Tour de Normandie and
Cinturón a Mallorca.
BISSELL Pro Cycling
Always strong on talent, the BISSELL Pro Cycling Team enters its fourth year
with BISSELL as owner/title sponsor. The team is on top of the NRC team
standings going into June, and will ride a fourth consecutive campaign at the
Tour of Utah. American veterans Ben Jacques-Maynes, an accomplished all-rounder,
and Frank Pipp, a sprinter, have accounted for overall wins at Merco Cycling
Classic (B. Jacques-Maynes) and the Joe Martin Stage Race (Pipp). The team has
more than a dozen podium finishes in 2011 to date. Other notable riders include
two-time national time trial champion Chris Baldwin, South African Jay Thomson,
and 21-year-old climber Chase Pinkham, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah.
RealCyclist.com
In the No. 2 spot on the U.S. race circuit is newcomer RealCyclist.com Pro
Cycling Team, with the top rider in NRC points, Francisco Mancebo. The title
sponsor, an on-line retailer of premium bikes, parts and accessories, is based
in Park City, Utah. Spaniard Mancebo has already won three stage races in the
U.S. this spring – Redlands Bicycle Classic, Sea Otter Classic and Tour of the
Gila.
Although the team makes its debut at Tour of Utah, Mancebo won the overall
title in 2009 and finished second in 2010, riding for two different teams. Other
big-time climbers on the team include Colombian Cesar Grajales, who won the KOM
classification at the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Classic in
2010, and Thomas Rabou (NED), who took the KOM crown at the 2010 Amgen Tour of
California. Teammate Evan Hyde, from Anchorage, Alaska, has been a Park City
resident for two years.
Jamis/Sutter Home Pro Cycling Team is
ranked ninth in the NRC team standings. The team has recorded eight podium
finishes so far this year. It bolstered its roster earlier this month by adding
time trial specialist Tom Zirbel. The 32-year-old from Iowa finished second at
the USA Cycling Professional Time Trial National Championship in 2009 and 2011,
and captured fourth in the World Time Trial Championships in 2009. The
early-season team leader has been designated as Ignacio Pereyra of Argentina,
who finished fourth overall at last year’s Tour de San Luis. He will be
supported by fellow Argentineans, brothers Alejandro and Anibal Borrajo.
Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth
Entering its fifth season, KBS is based out of Minneapolis,
Minn. The team had Top 10 finishes at Tour of Taiwan and Tour de Bretagne
Cycliste (France). New England rider Jesse Anthony placed second at this year’s
Tour of the Battenkill in N.Y. Returning for 2011 is sprinter Alex Candelario,
from Las Vegas, Nevada. finished second at the USA Cycling Professional Road
Race Championship last year and sixth this year. Other veterans on the team
include 12-year pro Michael Creed, accomplished track cyclist Mike Friedman, and
2007 U.S. national criterium champion Daniel Holloway. They also added climber
Jason Donald, who won Stage 1 of the 2008 Tour of Utah racing for
Garmin/Chipotle.
PureBlack Racing Team is based in Auckland, New Zealand and named
after the famous rugby team, the All Blacks, was founded in July 2010. The team
features a strong roster of 13 Kiwi riders, which has finished in the Top Three
in stages at Redlands Bicycle Classic and Joe Martin Stage Race this year. Roman
van Uden scored the first win for Team PureBlack at the downtown criterium in
Redlands, Calif. in April. While the team is new, its roster of experienced pros
has positioned them at fifth in NRC team standings. Glen Chadwick, a 10-year
veteran, raced previously with U.S. teams (Navigators, Team Type 1 and Rock
Racing). Roman van Uden and Mike Northey both raced with Rubicon-ORBEA out of
Oregon for the past two years.
The 2011 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah will consist of an opening prologue and
five stages. The week-long event continues to be free to all spectators, making
professional cycling one of the most unique pro sports in the world today.
Information about teams, VIP Packages, The Ultimate Challenge and additional
event information can be found by visiting
www.tourofutah.com
About the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah -
Deemed “America’s Toughest Stage RaceTM”, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah is a
six-day, six-stage, professional bicycle road race along the Rocky Mountain's
Wasatch Range. It traditionally covers more than 400 total miles of racing
through some of Utah's most beautiful and challenging terrain. Now in its
seventh year, the 2011 Tour of Utah is scheduled to take place August 9-14 as a
UCI 2.1 sanctioned road race for the best pro cyclists in the world. The event
is owned and operated by the Utah Cycling Partnership. The 2011 Tour of Utah
will be accompanied by a colorful, rolling festival celebration that will take
place at each day’s finish line host venue.
www.tourofutah.com
About the Larry H. Miller Group - The
Larry H. Miller Group of Companies began with a single automotive dealership,
Larry H. Miller Toyota, in Murray, Utah in 1979. Since that time, the Group has
amassed more than 80 businesses and properties in the western United States.
Most notable are the Utah Jazz NBA professional basketball franchise,
EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Bees Class-AAA
professional baseball affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,
state-of-the-art Miller Motorsports Park, Megaplex Theatres across Utah and 40
automobile dealerships representing 23 different automotive brands in seven
Western states. www.lhm.com
About Medalist Sports - Medalist Sports,
LLC is an international, full-service, sports management and production company.
An industry leader, Medalist Sports specializes in the successful planning,
promotion and management of special events, ranging from professional
competitions to amateur experiences, to cause-related/fundraising events.
Members of the Medalist team are proud to have been involved with and helped
manage such events and properties as Tour DuPont, Tour of China, Amgen Tour of
California, USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Tour de Georgia, Tour of Missouri, the
Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong Challenge), USA Cycling Professional
Championships, the Tour of Hope, The Dempsey Challenge presented by Amgen and
more. www.medalistsports.com
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