After five years as team director of Hagens Berman Axiom, Jeff Lauder is ending his role in training young riders and focusing on his new role as race director of the Wasatch All Road Gravel Race.

The U.S.-based Continental team was founded in 2009 and spent two seasons at the Professional Continental (now Pro Team) level before returning to action in 2020. While team owner Axel Merckx offered a wealth of racing opportunities in Europe, Lauder was in charge of guiding the development team in its domestic program. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed the road racing calendar, with only a handful of UCI one-day and stage races in the past two seasons.

"With the size and scope of the team changing, it makes sense to move this year. I loved being a part of such an important program and will miss the players and staff; I will always be a supporter of HBA and hope to get back involved in the future. But right now, I want to shift my focus closer to home," Lauder recently told Cycling News near his home in Utah.

He said the time is right to focus on his training business, Train Louder, and his gravel event, The Wasatch All-Road.

The Tour of Utah has been canceled for the second year in a row and he is in danger of leaving for good.

"It is unfortunate that the TOU will not be held in 2022. The loss of this event will leave another hole in the U.S. calendar that will be missed by riders, spectators, and teams alike," Lauder said of the final bow on the event he won in 2008 with the BMC Racing team and left his mark on.

"As a former winner and a Utahn, I know firsthand how important this event was not only to the local community, but to the professionals who participated in the race. It was an honor to have been involved with this tournament for so many years and I mourn its loss.

"The Tour of Utah was very important because it was the last bastion of international bicycle racing in the United States, or at least it had a history. I would love to see California, Colorado, Georgia, and all the other events come back. I would also like to see Gila and Redlands do well. These events may not be as developed as the Tour of Utah, but they are still important events."

Lauder was proud to have been part of the esteemed organization Hagen-Berman Axiom, which supports riders under the age of 23 in the United States and abroad. Some of the alumni who have had success on the World Tour in recent years include U23 time trial world champion Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), 2020 Giro d'Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), 2021 Donostia San Sebastian winner Nielson Powles (EF Education Easy Post), 2021 Tour de Pollogne GC winner Joan Almeida (now UAE Team Emirates), three-time Vuelta a España stage winner Yasper Filipsen (Alpecin Phoenix), among others.

"There were quite a few (riders) like Tao (Geoghegan Hart), which is not surprising. Of course, we didn't expect him to win the Giro at such a young age. He has the pedigree, so it wasn't that surprising," Lauder said of the talented practitioners.

"I think the biggest surprise for me, because I didn't know him very well, was Neilson Powles.

"When Axel hired him and started working with us, he was super young and didn't have many results on the road. He stayed and raced in the States and won our first race": that's Joe Martin. He did it in a classy way. It was an immediate surprise. It was no surprise that he then continued on that trajectory. His talent was there.

Lauder said he would miss his time with the team, but was cautious about a very slow return to racing in the US, especially stage racing.

"I feel honored to have been a part of their progress in some way. I wish I could tell them something to help them continue to improve. It's fun to be in touch with greatness and be a part of it. Most of the time, it's fun to see the people I work with succeed. It's nice to see their dreams come true, not mine," he recalled.

The Utah native got his first backcountry multi-surface race experience at the 2011 Crusher in the Tushar, where he finished fourth in the pro division. The race was started by Burke Swindlehurst, aka "T-Bird," another Utah native who has had success in the Tour of Utah and won a mountain prize as Lauder's teammate in 2005.

"Since retiring as a director, I've done a lot of things, including personal coaching and trying to focus more on my family. I think we got it off the ground last year and had great success," Lauder, who retired as a rider in 2014, said again about his career gear change.

"I retired from cycling professionally and started throwing darts at the board to see what sticks. The coaching I do is quite involved. It takes a lot of bandwidth to organize a bike race. I'm always interested in what's next. There are still more darts to come."

For now, the bullseye on the board is in the Heber Valley, nestled in the Wasatch Mountains of the western Rockies, where more than 650 riders attempted two rides in the inaugural Wasatch All Road last year. Lauder assessed the event as a success, "It was a success because what we promised came true. They were all happy, tired, and satisfied"

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The Full Yeti returns with 100 miles, 75 percent gravel, 12,000 feet of elevation gain, $10,000 prize money, and equal amounts for professional men and women; a new 65-mile Mid Yeti will be added in 2022, and the Mini Yeti returns with 35 miles and 4,000 feet of challenging challenging climb back up. All rides will begin and end at the headquarters of event organizer Ventum, which designs and markets gravel, road, and triathlon bicycles.

The name Yeti used for the route means "a mythical beast that is out there, scary and unknown," and is also used as the mascot for Ski Utah by the state tourism office.

Because it is not an out-and-back design, he notes, there are "lots of bailouts" on the course. Also, because the course starts at an elevation of 5,600 feet, he says, great care is taken to ensure safety between points, which should make it "a super-hard Everest-level event."

"I think the beauty of gravel is that it is open to everyone, everyone can participate in the same event and start at the same time. And we can finish together and compare ourselves. Not many people get to play on the same court as Michael Jordan, but in cycling you get to ride the route that the champion rides. That's what makes cycling in general special," Lauder said.

"I like the inclusiveness of gravel. The fun part of the old Crusher was racing with people you didn't know, it was ultra-competitive and fun. It was a challenge, it was different, it was an adventure. It wasn't a "thing" back then, and it wasn't called gravel ...... It was just a strange race."

Lauder says that organizing a motorcycle race is a real challenge.

"There are no guarantees in the sport. I have a voracious appetite for promoting bike racing, which is what I fight to keep in bike racing. It's an inclusive environment that is small, community oriented, and focused on a great challenge open to all.

"Gravel accessibility is really attractive to a lot of people. There are not a lot of hoops to jump through. You don't have to worry about sock height."