Salt Lake City ‘Crit’ race brings more than bicyclists to Granary District

Salt Lake City’s Granary District transformed into a racetrack on Saturday, hosting hundreds of bicyclists 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, packs of cyclists 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 cyclists 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 cyclists, with 400 participants 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 saw more patrons than typical on 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.”