Salt Lake City’s Granary District transformed into a racetrack on Saturday, hosting hundreds of bikers for the Salt Lake Criterium.
The criterium, or crit race, is the sixth race in a 10-part nationwide series for the American Criterium Cup.
Despite the scorching summer heat, bikers zoomed past in a counterclockwise, multi-lap circuit down 600 West and back up 500 West — while spectators frequented businesses and cheered on the contenders.
Salt Lake City organizer Eric Gardiner said over 600 bikers registered to participate in the event, either during Saturday’s circuit in the Granary District or Sunday’s race at Sugar House Park. Utahns likely made up about 200 of those participants, with 400 bikers drawn in from out of state.
“The long-term goal of this is not just for a bike race — it’s to have a really fun, exciting community party for Salt Lake City, and the crit race is a minor part of it,” Gardiner said. “For local businesses, hotels, restaurants, bars, it does a lot — there’s definitely an economic impact.”
The race partnered with local businesses to ensure roads were closed for the Granary District circuit, and many of the area shops saw more patrons Saturday as spectators tried to beat the heat.
Salt Lake’s evo campus — which features a hotel, skate park and recreational store — hosted a booth near the circuit. Since the store sells bikes and biking accessories, it was popular among attendees during the race.
“We’ve had a bit more traffic — I mean, typically, most of our business is in the wintertime, when people are getting ready for ski and snowboard season,” said Joshua Buriuk, a sales associate at evo. “I think we definitely also had some of the people that were participating in the race come in and bring in shoes or bikes that needed some quick repairs.”
Slackwater, a new pizzeria and pub in the Granary District, also saw increased traffic. The restaurant officially opened about two weeks ago, so Saturday’s event was a good opportunity to get acquainted with locals, said Slackwater service operations director Shelby Dominguez.
“This is an area of Salt Lake that typically has not been super developed, and now we’re starting to see a lot of new businesses pop up,” Buriuk said. “It’s just getting good exposure to this area of Salt Lake, and making people realize that there is a lot of new things coming up, so I’m excited to see what happens.”
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/kpsRWAj
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