Peter Stetina (Canyon Cliff Bar) won the Belgian Waffle Ride Cedar City on Saturday, while Whitney Allison (Bike Sport) took the women's crown.

The southern Utah event, billed as a "true gravel edition," was 128 miles long with an elevation gain of 6,300 feet. Although 70% of the course was unpaved, Cedar City is located at 5,800 feet above sea level, so one of the biggest challenges was the elevation gain, which made for a full day of riding. The Belgian Waffle Ride is the third of four this year and the final race of the 2021 "Tripel" Crown of Gravel Series.

On a hot day in southern Utah, six male riders were separated from a field of 205 in the last 40 miles. Then, in the final 11 miles, Stetina was able to break away from Griffin Easter (Start Cycling) on the most technical section of the day, the climb up Shirt Canyon on the "Torweg" (an intense 4.4 mile long dirt section).

"It was singletrack," Stetina said at the finish." The crafty veteran won today."

Easter, a Utah native, won the Baked Potato Race in Idaho earlier this year ahead of Colin Strickland and Stetina.

"I have a lot of respect for Griffin (Easter). I couldn't let him down on the climb. He was pulling, but we respect each other," said Stetina, who won the series opener in Southern California.

"I pushed him on the tight singletrack in Torweg. I was hoping he would make a mistake and then I heard a flat tire. The punks are so loud, they don't punk a little bit. You could tell it was an unfortunate situation for him. That's gravel racing. It's intense singletrack that's the point, and it's racing to push it.

"For me, it's always good to win with different tactics. You have to be able to do everything here."

Easter said she tried running with air in her tires for a while, but was ultimately satisfied with second place.

On the women's side, Allison said she left the last major race of the season with her best performance, winning, which was her goal for the year. Lindsey Goldman (Factor Eliel Honeystinger) was second and Heidi Franz (Rally Cycling) was third.

In an exhausting day, Allison and Goldman rode together for a long time after Franz flattened out, after which Allison survived alone without crashing or flattening out.

"Eventually, Heidi (Franz), Lindsey Goldman, and I got together with some of Wafer's group and stayed together until they were on the rest of the route.

"Heidi unfortunately flattened out and I think Lindsey was struggling with the altitude. Basically, I had to run by myself for a very long time. It was really crazy hard."

This year's Cedar City event, along with events in California and North Carolina, was the trio of the "Tripel [sic] Crown of Gravel" series. In the Tripel Crown, the top three male and female finishers each received cash prizes based on their cumulative times. In the individual races, cash prizes were awarded to the top five male and female finishers.

Leading up to Cedar City, Sofia Gomez Villafane took first place in the women's overall and QOM categories, while Ian Boswell took first place in the men's overall and KOM categories.