CEDAR CITY — Cedar City was recently selected by USA Cycling to host the 2020-2021 Cycling Masters Road National Championships.
USA Cycling is the national governing body for all competitive cycling in the United States and produces 17 national championships, ranging from mountain biking and BMX to road cycling. The 2020 Cycling Masters Road National Championships will take place in Cedar City from July 30 to Aug. 2.
Cedar City Event Director Todd Hageman told Cedar City News that athletes over the age of 35 will be competing in three disciplines this summer: the time trial, the road race and the criterium.
“What I’ve been trying to do as event director is get Cedar City on the map for different national championships,” he said. “Hopefully cycling will lead to different sports and different events that will see Cedar City now that we’ve broken into this national championship space.”
Hageman added that one of the reasons Cedar City was chosen to host the competition was the city’s proximity to other recreational opportunities.
“They see that its important for towns like Cedar City, that its an economic driver as well as a marketing driver,” he said. “So the proximity of Zion National Park, the beauties of Cedar Breaks, all of those played into the role.”
He also said many of the athletes who compete are able to spend approximately $5,000 a year on cycling.
“It’s a demographic that can come here, make it a long weekend, spend money, leave money in Cedar City,” Hageman said. “It’s an economic driver, as well as, we’ve already seen it so far people are now searching ‘what’s Cedar City’ … and its just getting that word out that Cedar City’s a great location and getting people to do those searches and find out more information about it.”
As cyclists compete this summer, there will be road closures in place. The time trial will take place in Parowan and go through the Parowan Gap. The road races will occur in western areas of Cedar City, and the criterium will have cyclists racing around Southern Utah University.
“We’ll start putting those course maps out and start doing traffic management plans and get people informed on kind of how to avoid those areas,” Hageman said. “They are full closures for the day, but we will have arrangements to get people in and out of their homes.”
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