Kaufmann and Elson Win 2024 Utah State Mountain Bike Championships – Report, Results, Photos

CEDAR CITY, Utah — On Saturday May 18, 2024, Red Rock Events held their annual Intermountain Cup Three Peaks Mountain Bike Race. This race is part of the series and the race director, Margaret Gibson, permits this one race annually with USA Cycling. Three years ago, enough racers and local clubs approached Margaret asking if she would sanction a race with USA Cycling. This would give an opportunity for Utah based athletes and clubs to chase points and qualify to attend a national championship. Margaret agreed to sanction this race to help others.

The event in Cedar City, Utah had nearly 700 athletes attend from Utah and other states. The Pan American Mountain Bike Championship was held the previous week at nearby Soldier Hollow in Heber, Utah and some athletes stayed in Utah for the extra week to race this event. Even a few members of the Argentina National Team stayed to compete. The event was well organized, and the weather was great for a race.

Several athletes were crowned as USA Cycling Utah State Champions. Samuel Elson won the Men’s Elite Category with a time of 1:59:57. Sarah Kaufmann topped the Women’s Elite with a time of 1:41:48.

Many local teams participated. Accel Cycling crowned Addyson Lundberg as the Varsity Girls Cat 1 State Champion and their team had seven podiums overall. Maybird Cycling has two new state champions, Quin Profsky won the Freshman girls and Emma Daily won JV girls for the State Championship. Spry Cycling had contenders as well. Dan Draper the manager of Maybird Cycling said, “I just think we are so lucky to have the ICup series available to us and I wish more regions throughout the nation had something similar. Just such a great opportunity for all levels and ages to get racing experience.”

Bryson Perry from Rouleur Devo said, “a huge congratulations to all our new Utah State Champions. These athletes can be competitive in national and international levels of competition and it’s cool to watch and see them ripping it up both locally and nationally. Hopefully in the future we can get even more ICup events sanctioned with USAC. These races make a big difference in helping Utah athletes to continue their progression and development and earn points ranking that help them to have better race starts when they are at national events. A huge thank you to Margaret and the ICup for sanctioning this race. It is appreciated and critical to helping Utah athletes progress to compete in national and international level competition.”

Brandon Price, chief referee from USA Cycling said, “Utah has some strong riders. The local athletes and professional clubs are talked about on the national level and Utah produces both local and national champions. There is something in the Utah water that makes its athletes among the nation’s best competitors.”

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