Tony Gill

Professional cyclists are flocking to the Beehive State as the Tour of Utah kicks off for the sixteenth time on August 12. The annual road biking spectacle will challenge world-class riders with a leg-torching 38,000 feet of elevation gain over seven days through Utah’s famed mountain ranges. Three past Tour of Utah Champions—Joe Dombrowski, Lachlan Morton and Rob Britton—will take the starting line to compete alongside athletes from UCI professional teams, including 24-year-old Giulio Ciccone, who won the King of the Mountains jersey at this year’s Giro d’Italia and wore the yellow leader’s jersey for two days at the 2019 Tour de France.

Tour of Utah riders relentlessly attack the mountain stages.

The Tour of Utah starts on August 12 with the prologue at Snowbird where riders will speed through an individual time trial up Little Cottonwood Road. Over the course of the next week the race winds its way from Logan to Powder Mountain Resort, from Antelope Island State Park to Salt Lake City before a brutal final stage that begins and ends on Park City’s Main Street on August 18. Check out the full list of stages and venues for this year’s Tour of Utah to catch all the action in person.

Witnessing these superhuman riders in action will likely get your motivational juices flowing, so jump on that rare rush of fitness inclination, and get ready to ride your own mini tour.

Gear Up for Your Ride

You’re going to need a bike. Yes, the rusted-out Schwinn in your garage is probably fine and that now-disgraced-former-hero was right when he said “It’s not about the bike.” However, few things are more inspirational than new bike day, especially when you can get a killer deal from a local Utah Company.

Fezzari Bicycles was born and bred in Utah—many of their bikes bear the names of famous local mountains—and they offer a unique direct to consumer sales platform, which substantially lowers the cost to you. Typically a bike goes from the manufacturer to a distributor to a bike shop to the consumer, with markups all along the way. By cutting out the middle part of that transaction, Fezzari provides a comparable high-quality product for less money.

The Fezzari Empire delivers great bang for the buck

Our top pick for your budding cycling obsession is the Empire. The bike is named for the epic climb up Empire Pass and features endurance-focused geometry that is not only efficient, but is also ultra comfortable on long rides. While not cheap at $1,699, the Empire is a complete steal for the package you get, and you can be sure your legs will give up long before the bike you’re on does.

Ride Your Own Tour

I wouldn’t deign to suggest you attempt following the Tour of Utah’s actual route—most of us mortals would expire along any one of the race’s formidable stages—but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience Utah’s highlights from the saddle. Here are a few options to get started.

Emigration Canyon

The climb up Emigration Canyon is a great introduction to mountainous riding. The eight-mile climb gently rises approximately 1,200 feet from This Is The Place Heritage Park to the Little Mountain Summit with views of Mount Aire and Little Dell Reservoir. If you have extra gas in the legs, an additional seven miles and 1,500 vertical feet will take you to the Big Mountain Summit. Whichever option you choose, stop by Ruth’s Diner on the way down to undo all that hard work with some Mile High Biscuits and Country Gravy.

Antelope Island

Explore the largest island in the Great Salt Lake on two wheels. Park at any one of the parks on Antelope Drive in Syracuse and start turning your pedals west across the Causeway to Antelope Island. There’s a three-dollar day use fee for cyclists, but it’s well worth the investment. A counter-clockwise tour of the island will bring you back to the Causeway and the finish of the 48-mile ride.

Provo River Parkway to Utah Lake

The 35-mile point-to-point ride starts at Vivian Park and follows the Provo River Parkway Trail before joining the Murdock Canal Trail and Jordan River Trail to Utah Lake. The paved trails feature incredible views of the Central Wasatch, are delightfully devoid of vehicle traffic and end with the opportunity to cool off with a dip in Utah Lake. Just don’t forget to stash a car or arrange for a ride home.

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The mountain bike game in Park City is competitive, and for those involved, second chances don’t often come easy. It looked like Park City Bike Demos (PCBD) had reached the end of the line when they shuttered the business in August 2018, but the shop has found new life after being purchased and relaunched earlier this spring by Robert DeMartini, new CEO of USA Cycling and former CEO of New Balance.

PCBD started life as a mobile rental program with two converted cargo vans that would meet customers at trailheads or hotels in town, but quickly expanded to include a full-service bike shop on UT-248. “Around 90 percent of our customers wanted to be able to walk into a shop and have an experience that went beyond just rentals,” says PCBD Founder Andre Shoumatoff. “When one in eight of your customers ends up purchasing a bike, you’re really in the business of selling bikes more than just renting them.”

Park City Bike Demos aims to be a destination bike shop selling only the best and most trusted brands. You can find bikes from DeVinci, Ibis and Felt along with cutting edge suspension components from Utah’s own Trust Performance. Bike components aren’t inexpensive, so come test what’s right for you before putting down your hard-earned dough. 1500 Kearns Blvd, 435-659-3991, parkcitybikedemos.com

With the shop came a shift in priorities, including a focus on demo-ing and ultimately selling high-end bikes with rental credits. The try before you buy model was great for consumers—especially important when you’re about to plunk down thousands of dollars on a bicycle. The business, however, struggled to adapt.

“We made plenty of mistakes initially,” says Shoumatoff, who is still involved with PCBD as General Manager. “We were overly ambitious in some areas, which got expensive. We needed a space for such a large inventory of bikes that we ended up with a warehouse masquerading as a bike shop. But we maintained customer ratings that were consistently high, and that will always be our primary goal.”

DeMartini has helped to restructure the business, but will be relatively hands off in its day-to-day operations. His daughter-in-law Alyssa DeMartini is co-General Manager along with Shoumatoff, while Gina Magnuson—who has years of industry experience managing retail finance for Specialized and POC—will be in charge of the store’s finances. Today, you can walk into PCBD to test out their latest high-end products for around $10 less per day than at competing shops, and receive up to $600 in transferrable rental credits which can be applied to a bike purchase.

“The trucks were our origin, and they’re still prominently featured in our logo, but we’re trying to deliver an in-shop experience that’s unrivaled in town,” Shoumatoff says. There’s even a coffee bar in the shop, providing a space perfect for caffeinated discussion and the needed geeking out with other bike nerds.

Three things in life are certain: death, taxes and Vail Resorts acquiring more ski areas. The third item on the list reentered our orbit when Vail Resorts announced a merger agreement to acquire Peak Resorts, and subsequently assumed control of 17 ski areas across the United States. The resorts will be added to the Epic Pass for the upcoming 2019-2020 ski season following the deal’s closing this fall.

The 17 ski areas include Vermont’s Mount Snow, New York’s Hunter Mountain; New Hampshire’s Attitash Mountain Resort, Wildcat Mountain and Crotched Mountain; Pennsylvania’s Liberty Mountain Resort, Roundtop Mountain Resort, Whitetail Resort, Jack Frost and Big Boulder; Ohio’s Alpine Valley, Boston Mills, Brandywine and Mad River Mountain; Missouri’s Hidden Valley and Snow Creek; and Indiana’s Paoli Peaks.

Though some of the new acquisitions are well-known staples of the New England ski landscape, many of the resorts in Peak Resorts’ portfolio are smaller areas near major metropolitan areas. It’s highly unlikely many Utah-based or intermountain-adjacent skiers will head to the Midwest to check out the relatively-modest slopes of Ohio, Indiana and Missouri, but there’s a high likelihood that skiers from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleveland and St. Louis will leverage their newly-local Epic Pass privileges with trips out west.

Undoubtedly, this is a boon to skiers who frequent the newly-acquired resorts who will enjoy an influx of resources to their local hills as well as more affordable access to the Utah’s famed powder. On the other hand, the same increased access will likely lead to more skier days at Park City Mountain. Your mileage will vary on the latter point depending on your point of reference. Vail Resorts is doubling down on their strategy of pre-selling as many skier days as possible to avoid the inevitable fluctuations in enthusiasm that correspond with unpredictable snowfall totals, as CEO Rob Katz articulated in public remarks to Parkites this spring. Local skiers who were miffed about unusually long lift lines last season, particularly at Canyons Base area, may not be as thrilled.

Vail Resorts is betting big on skier outreach in metropolitan markets as evidenced by the aggregate purchase price of $264 million for all Peaks Resorts common stock. Ski resort concentration—with all the fraught connotations it entails—continues at a relentless pace throughout the industry. Vail Resorts did mention in their accompanying press release they plan to, “retain the vast majority of each resort’s employees,” moving forward to lessen the specter of the corporate boogeyman coming to haunt smaller operations.

When the deal is done, skiers with full Epic Pass benefits will have access to a whopping 94 different ski areas. Choices for which ownership group to patronize are diminishing, but there will be no shortage of ski resorts to visit for those who hop on the Epic Pass train.

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Whisper Ridge is already renowned for its powder-fueled cat and helicopter skiing, and now they’re expanding their operation to offer Utah heli-biking adventures in the warmer months. You may not have had much exposure to heli-biking, which had previously been exclusively limited to professional mountain bike films and pricey operations across the coast range and Canadian Rockies, which is why Whisper Ridge is making waves with the first heli-drop program for mountain bikers in the lower 48.

For less than $200 per day, you can hop in a whirlybird for an exhilarating ride to the top of the Limber Pine trail. From there it’s a five and a half-mile ride down through loamy, high-elevation pine forests in the northern Wasatch for over 2,300 vertical feet. With only around 60 riders accessing the terrain each day, it’s a little slice of singletrack heaven for every Utah biker who’s had to deal with blown-out, moondust-filled corners and close calls on highly-trafficked two-way trails.

A single heli-drop at Whisper Ridge costs $200, with each additional bump costing $100 if just one wasn’t enough to get your fix. A full-day pass includes four drops and nearly 10,000 feet of descending for $475 per person. A six-pack pass runs $995 and can be used by one rider for six rides at any time during the season or for an individual six-person group heli-drop for your crew. The $166 per-person cost with the latter option is an absolutely unheard-of value for a heli-drop, especially since you can spend the rest of the day pedaling back to the top for more runs at no additional charge.

Whisper Ridge is in the process of expanding their trail network and should have even more terrain available by later this summer. Additionally, riders can access Whisper Ridge’s Yurt Village for a luxury camping experience that’s just over an hour’s drive from Sale Lake City but feels worlds away.

8990 UT-165, Paradise, 801-876-4664, whisperridgeutah.com

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