Pat McCarty is hoping to have a strong ride at this week's UCI 2.1 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah on August 9-14 in Salt Lake City. He was off to a good start at the uphill prologue in which he placed 11th behind a short list of world-class talents.
"Maybe I'll be good in the overall here," McCarty told Cyclingnews. "I have always ridden for the overall before but the field is stronger this year. But, I am feeling better this year too. I will have to see how it goes because I haven't raced for so long and some of the guys here are coming from the Tour de France, so it's hard to say. I'd like to say I can go for the overall but things might change."
McCarty's uphill prologue performance landed him just 12 seconds behind the stage winner and overall race leader Sergio Henao (Gobernacion de Antioquia). Other riders who placed inside the top 10 included Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com), Oscar Sevilla (Gobernacion de Antioquia), Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-HighRoad), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo), Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo), Jack Bauer (Endura Racing), Tyler Wren (Jamis-Sutter Home) and Cesar Grajales (RealCyclist.com).
"I rode the prologue course yesterday and I liked it, but it was painful," McCarty said. "The overall will change a little bit this week. Snowbird is a big day and I would like to try for the overall. We have to see how it plays out because the race is a little different this year."
The race will continue with a new stage 1 circuit race from Ogden to Ogden, a 187km race will climb over Ogden Pass three times. Other decisive stages include stage three time trial held at the Miller Motorsport Park, a new stage 4 circuit race held on the steep pitches in downtown Salt Lake City, and the traditional "queen" stage 5 finale that begins in Park City and ends atop the Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort.
McCarty won the King of the Mountain competition at the Amgen Tour of California in May. He went on to race the USA Pro Cycling Championships, TD Bank International Philadelphia Cycling Championships and the Tour de Beauce. "I took a break and went to my parents place in New Mexico for two weeks and I'm ready to start racing again," he said.
SpiderTech p/b C10 brought a good team to contest the race that also includes Lucas Euser, Andrew Randell, Flavio De Luna, Simon Lambert-Lemay, Bruno Langlois, Francois Paresien and Ryan Roth.
"I think we picked our best riders for this race," said McCarty. "They are guys that do well at altitude and are good climbers."
