The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah finished up on Sunday afternoon after seven days of cycling covering 500 miles and 38,000 feet of climbing. The final stage, starts and ends on Park City’s Main Street.
Fans were packed into balconies and lined both sides of Park City’s historic Main Street to watch the start and finish of the 2019 final stage of the Tour of Utah. Vendor booths, giving away swag, sometimes had lines as long as 50 people waiting to pick up a ball cap or feed bag.
American Joe Dombrowski was the stage winner for the day and came in 3rd place overall for the general classification. Dombrowski rides with EF Education First.
“I wanted to try to win the stage today. I’ve done the climb a number of times in training and obviously the race has done this climb quite a few times. It’s kind of a different climb and typically, the selection can happen at the bottom. Because it’s steep. But once you get to the second half of the climb, it rolls. There’s even some down hills. So, if you’re with the group, it’s more difficult to get away. So, I tried at the bottom and eventually I decided to ease off on the climb and hopefully, some guys would come back and maybe it would present another opportunity to go at the top and yeah, it worked out.”
The General Classification champion winning the yellow jersey was Belgian Ben Hermans with the Isreal Cycling Academy. He says he’s been building up to this victory.
“From the first time I did this race in 2014, I had a good feeling with this race. I keep getting better results with the GC’s. So last year, I got second and this year I win. So, I’m really happy with this win and I’m also really happy with how the team worked for me. We were never in trouble.”
The sprint champion was American Travis McCabe with Floyd’s Pro Cycling team. McCabe has won the sprint jersey for the past three years in a row. When asked about his disappointment not winning the SLC stage, he had this to say.
“It’s bike racing. I mean I tried to put my heart out there. I tried to do everything I could. The team rode fantastic. You know, I think I had everyone behind me the whole time and sometimes you just come up short. So, it happens, and you can’t win everything. You know I tried and so did the team. For the 3rd consecutive sprint jersey, it feels great. We really wanted to come out and show how strong of a domestic team we have and also just get the results.”
The King of the Mountain winner is Hayden McCormick from Team Bridgelane. He hails from Australia. He came in second in stage 5 and he says it was his goal to keep the jersey through the end of the race.
Portugese rider, Joao (Jow) Almeida (Almade-uh) with team Hagens Berman Axeon won the best young rider for the GC. Every best young rider from the Tour of Utah has gone on to ride the World Tour.
“It feels really good. I think it’s really fulfilling. My main goal is the GC, which I could have achieved also but these jerseys are really good and I’m really happy to have it. It means something.”
The Larry H. Miller Family sponsors the race along with 50 corporate partners, a thousand volunteers and the nine host communities. The stage race will return next year for the 16th Tour of Utah.
Highlight video of the start and finish can be found on KPCW’s face book page.
