Curious if anyone has any intel on Lifetime’s current direction or thoughts here? The Silver King Wildfire is ripping through the course area, with the roads crowded with wildland fire fighters and air quality a wind direction shift away from being unbreathable at any given time.
Anyone with any ins or any intel here? I’m supposed to fly out tomorrow… Course is in the smoke in picture below. Current wind direction pushing fire further toward course.
I doubt you’ll see a big update until mid-end of the week. Wildfire containment can shift drastically with wind and other weather related issues. Doesn’t really help with you flying out tomorrow, but that’s my best guess.
From the Crusher website:
As of 7/5 at 7:30 PM MT
The Little Twist Fire near the course is mostly contained, but the new Silver King Fire north of the course is impacting air quality. Please avoid preriding if sensitive to poor air quality and monitor AQI updates as we approach race day. Your safety is our top priority, and we will keep you updated with any new developments.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Stay safe, The Crusher in the Tushar Team
Appears fire is spiraling out of control this afternoon with new wind activity. Evacuations have started and fire now reported at over 6k feet. The whole mountain is in a cloud of smoke. I don’t see how Crusher isn’t cancelled with no rain in forecast till Friday at best.
Damn that’s terrible for the people that live there. Hope they can contain it and no one loses their home.
Apparently Lifetime will send another update this afternoon but current reporting shows 0% containment and around 10000 acres. Who knows what will happen but I hope we get something more definitive this afternoon.
I’m supposed to leave Thursday morning and worst case is a a cancellation after driving for 8 hours
I’d save yourself the time and plan to not leave. I’d be shocked if it happened. Fire continues to move closer to course, air quality indexes still largely healthy on course but trending down, and the support crews (local residents) have much larger priorities than helping on Saturday. Certain are evacuated and the remainder are helping those that aren’t. I’d be shocked if this race happened but hopefully that is the case!
Flashbacks to Ironman Tahoe ~10 years ago…athletes were literally “toes in the water” getting ready to start the swim and they cancelled the race.
Hopefully Lifetime makes the right call and cancels the race early, if warranted…there are bigger priorities than a bike race.
A bummer but definitely the right call. Anyone know of any other events going on around Utah this weekend?
So bummed for all the folks who trained and planned for the race. And even more so for the locals managing through it. Hope they get a shift in the weather and can get it under control.
There was a forest fire near leadville when I was up there a few weeks ago, but luckily they got it pretty well contained in less than a week and nobody lost their home/property as far as I know. It was crazy seeing the planes and choppers doing their water drops and amazing how quick they had an army of firefighters on the ground. I had never seen a forest fire in person previously and It was hard to grasp how they control these things when you see a large wooded area burning. They said if it had happened in July, it would have been 100x worse, so I guess those July conditions are what they are dealing with in Utah. Some trails are still closed near leadville as the forest service wraps things up, but hopefully they will be open for the stage race in a few weeks.
I don’t know of any other gravel events, but the Cache Valley Fondo is this Saturday. It’s a well-organized event and I’m sure you could still register.
