Crusher in the Tushar - Gallery

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Alex Grant (Gear Rush) and Evelyn Dong (Pivot-Stan's No Tubes) prevailed in one of the fastest editions of Crusher in the Tushar against fields stacked with notable road talent.

More than 600 riders competed in the 111km-long gravel race in Utah's Tushar Mountains, including new US national road champion Alex Howes (Education First Pro Cycling), criterium champion Travis McCabe (Floyd's Pro Cycling) and U23 champion Lance Haidet (Aevolo Cycling); along with Team Tibco's Laurens Stephens and reigning "Queen of Kanza", Amity Rockwell.

Stephens went out hard, opening up a solo lead only to be caught and passed by Dong with 10 miles to go, just after cresting the race's major difficulty dubbed the Col d'Crush. Dong opened up a sizable lead while Stephens had done enough to secure second with Sarah Max (Argonaut-ENVE) following in third, three minutes later.

"I definitely didn't expect to win coming into this, having never ridden this course before," said Dong. "It's my first time. A lot of my training is like this, high altitude riding, this is what I love to do. In that sense, this pretty much feels like home."

Amy Charity, Aimee Vasse, Mindy Caruso, Scotti Lechuga, Hanna Muegge, Amity Rockwell and Kae Takeshita rounded out the top 10.

The same climb proved decisive on the men's field, and it was there that Grant launched the decisive attack about halfway up the 2500 ft. climb, dropping fellow leaders Howes and Eddie Anderson (Axeon-Hagens Berman). 39-year-old Grant opened up a 90-second lead by the crest and continued to extend his lead over the next 20km to finish three minutes before Anderson with Howes a further minute adrift.

"Two years I've done it I've had flats, two years I've had catastrophic bonks, and last year I had a pretty good year," said Grant. "This is my sixth time racing, and I finally got the win. Honestly, this was like a dream, like 'maybe I'll win the Crusher someday, maybe not.' I'm so pumped to win it, it was a super-fast day out there, tons of strong riders."

"Oh man, it was tough," said freshly-crowned U.S. road champion Howes. "I was down at sea level before this, so coming back [to altitude], at the bottom of the Col d'Crush, I was feeling like a real champion, and then we hit a certain altitude and I just detonated. I'm actually pretty surprised I held on for third. It's a funny thing at altitude, it's like a bad dream. You just watch people ride away, and there's just nothing you can do. Hats off to Eddie and Alex, both of them rode great."

Cyclo-crosser Jamie Driscoll was fourth ahead of Zach Calton, with TJ Eisenhart, Lance Haidet, Gage Hecht and Travis McCabe and Luke Gangic-Wellman rounding out the top 10.

"It's an absolute honor and thrill to have some of the country's top pro riders add the Crusher to their schedules," said race founder and director Burke Swindlehurst. "But what really fills me with pride and gets me emotional is seeing the weekend warriors--some of whom walked many of the climbs--come across the line hours after the pros have finished. I have crazy respect for anyone who crosses that finish line, and it's seeing those folks achieve their goals that is the most rewarding part of this job."

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