{"id":1531579,"date":"2024-07-08T19:12:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T16:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1531579"},"modified":"2024-07-08T19:12:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T16:12:57","slug":"crusher-in-the-tushar-canceled-due-to-wildfire-life-time-grand-prix-pivots-to-best-four-of-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1531579","title":{"rendered":"Crusher in the Tushar Canceled Due to Wildfire; Life Time Grand Prix Pivots to Best Four of Six"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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Published July 8, 2024 07:12PM<\/div>\n
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On Monday afternoon, Life Time made the \u201cdifficult decision\u201d to cancel the Crusher in the Tushar gravel race due to the\u00a0 Silver King and Little Twist forest fires burning in the Piute County area of southern Utah. The event was to be held on Saturday, July 13 in Beaver, Utah.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOut of respect for the strained local emergency services and out of safety for our athletes, volunteers, partners and the community we feel it is not possible to continue with events as planned,\u201d Life Time said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Silver King fire, of most concern, is aggressively burning with zero percent containment and the winds are blowing both the fire, and the smoke, directly toward our race venue and course, which pose a very likely risk of extremely poor air quality on race day. \u201d<\/p>\n

The decision also forced the race organizer to adjust the rules of the Life Time Grand Prix series, which began in April at the Sea Otter Classic.<\/p>\n

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Now, athletes in the series will be ranked on their best four of six results, rather than the originally planned five of seven.<\/p>\n

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The series opened with the Sea Otter Classic in April, followed by Unbound Gravel in June. With the cancelation of Crusher in the Tushar, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race on August 10 will be the third event in this year\u2019s series, followed by Chequamegon and the Rad in September and Big Sugar in mid-October.<\/p>\n

According to Michelle Duffy, Life Time\u2019s Senior Director of Events and Retail Marketing, the Crusher in the Tushar team weighed multiple options and even looked to other sports, like golf and F1 racing, to see how they deal with the unforeseen cancelation of events before making its decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith sports like football and the NFL, it\u2019s easier to reschedule, whereas other sports don\u2019t reschedule and continue the series with the omission of an event,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Among Grand Prix athletes, the early reaction to the cancelation of Crusher was one of both disappointment and understanding.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, dang! Really sad to just hear the news of @lifetimegrandprix\u00a0#3\u00a0@tusharcrusher being cancelled,\u201d said Grand Prix athlete Payson McElveen on social media. \u201cDefinitely easy to feel bummed after quite a few hours spent on preparation. I\u2019ve been feeling quite good the last couple of weeks, was looking forward to the challenge, and optimistic about continuing momentum in the GP points battle\u2014 but my mind has pretty quickly switched to sadness about those beautiful mountains of the Fish Lake National Forest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for making this tough call! I really think it\u2019s the only right one,\u201d said Haley Smith, who won Crusher in the Tushar in 2022.<\/p>\n

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The elite women at the 2022 Crusher in the Tushar<\/span> (Photo: Life Time)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an email to all participants \u2014 not just Life Time Grand Prix athletes \u2014Life Time offered three options in light of the cancelation: a 40 percent refund on entry fee, a complimentary deferred entry, or the option to donate the entirety of the entry fee to Beaver County Search and Rescue. Those who chose the latter option will receive a guaranteed, non-complimentary entry to the 2025 Crusher in the Tushar.<\/p>\n

Recent high temperatures, gusty winds, and low humidity have fostered the growth of wildfires in central and southern Utah over the past week.<\/p>\n

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The Silver King fire, which broke out on Saturday near Marysville, Utah, is still zero percent contained and burning over 10,000 acres. The Little Twist fire, which started as a controlled burn last month but exceeded its limits, is burning\u00a0 just four miles southeast of Beaver at 4,307 acres with 35 percent containment.<\/p>\n

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Published July 8, 2024 07:12PM<\/div>\n
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Source URL: https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/2024-crusher-in-the-tushar-canceled\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published July 8, 2024 07:12PM On Monday afternoon, Life Time made the \u201cdifficult decision\u201d to cancel the Crusher in the Tushar gravel race due to the\u00a0 Silver King and Little Twist forest fires burning in the Piute County area of southern Utah. The event was to be held on Saturday, July 13 in Beaver, Utah. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1531586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-1531579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1531579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1531586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1531579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1531579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1531579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}