The Tour of Utah has been removed from the 2022 racing calendar

The American stage race last took place in 2019 with the pandemic halting plans in the last two years

Ben Hermans, James Piccoli and Joe Dombrowski on the 2019 Tour of Utah podium
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tim Bonville-Ginn
By Tim Bonville-Ginn
published

The Tour of Utah has been removed from the 2022 racing calendar, at the request of the organisers. 

The race has taken place every year between 2010, when it saw its first edition, to 2019 with the pandemic wiping out the next two years. A lack of sponsorship support sees it eliminated for 2022. 

The race's terrain boasted a mix of high altitude mountains, punchy climbs, testing time trials and rapid sprint finishes, which made it an extremely entertaining event, with some unlikely stage winners.

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In a statement, owner and President of Medalist Sports, LLC, Chris Aronhalt said: "On-going sponsor and host community discussions have been positive; however, not strong enough to support a viable effort to meet our collective expectations.

"While disappointed, Medalist Sports is grateful for the opportunity and cherishes the Tour of Utah’s legacy."

There have been eight winners of the race over the 10 years of running the race with American riders Levi Leipheimer and Tom Danielson being the most successful with two wins.

The race also saw the first major appearance of Sepp Kuss as he dominated in 2018. It also remains the only race that Lachlan Morton has taken a win at in his career, with four stage wins and one overall title.

The last rider to win it was Belgian rider Ben Hermans who beat James Piccoli in a great battle for the GC. It was such an impressive display by Piccoli that he was signed by Hermans' squad, Israel Start-Up Nation for the next season.

Utah isn't the first race in the USA to disappear, with the Tour of California pausing in 2019, before the pandemic as well as the USA Pro Challenge and Tour of Colorado all falling by the wayside.

It is not certain whether the Tour of Utah will ever return. It is in a similar position to another stage race across the Atlantic in Yorkshire with the Tour de Yorkshire coming to a close for very similar reasons in 2022 after two years out due to Covid-19. It remains to be seen if either will return.

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Tim Bonville-Ginn
Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.

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