For 2014's Crusher in the Tushar, a 70-mile gravel race that extends through some of Utah's highest road elevation, Levi Leipheimer edged Jamey Driscoll to take the top step on the podium. This year's race brought even more cyclocross names to the front, including Allen Krughoff, Tim Johnson and Jonathan Page. Use the slider below the race introduction for both race reports as well as the top ten results in both the Men's and Women's Fields.
Photo gallery of winners and the race coming soon.
by Steven L. Sheffield
In the small southwestern Utah town of Beaver, a town originally settled by Mormon pioneers in 1856 just west of the Tushar mountains, also known as the birthplace of both the notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy and inventor of the television Philo T. Farnsworth, a beautifully crisp and cool morning greeted the field the roughly 600 riders choosing to brave the course designed by former road professional Burke Swindlehurst in the Fifth Annual Beaver County Travel Council Crusher in the Tushar, presented by DNA Cycling.
Jamey Driscoll returned to the Crusher in the Tushar and took another second-place finish. Tim Johnson, Allen Krughoff and Jonathan Page were the other cyclocross racers that raced. Photo: Christopher See.
In attendance were riders from 23 US states and 3 countries, on a wide variety of bikes, ranging from cyclocross bikes to both rigid and full-suspension mountain bikes, geared and singlespeed, with flat bars, drop bars, riser bars or mustache-bars, and even a couple of tandems, ready to tackle an event that never dipped below 5900’ in elevation.
The 69-mile course through the remote wilderness areas of Utah’s little-known Tushar Mountains and Fishlake National Forest features a near-perfect 50/50 split of paved and dirt roads spanning two counties and approximately 10,000 vertical feet of climbing, before finishing at Eagle Point Ski Resort, with a summit just under 10,400’.
