Ronnie Boutte – Executive Director
ronnie.boutte@utahcycling.com
Short introduction about yourself:
I have been married for 32 years; we have 4 kids with a 5th on the way. All of the boys in my family have names that start with the letter “R” (11 in total). In addition to my day job, I am an MC for several endurance events like the Tour of Utah’s Ultimate Challeng
e, Salt Lake City Marathon, every NICA high school mountain bike race from 2012-2016, Crusher in the Tusher, UTCX, and many others. If you’ve been to an event where the announcer was yelling at you then it was probably me. (Fun fact: I once announced a Utah High School Mountain Bike race at Snowbasin in the tuxedo that I gave my daughter away to be married in just a few hours after the races ended.)
Why you ride/how long you have been riding:
I started training and road racing in 1988 when I was 17 years old. My “unofficial” coach was a salesman at Northwest Cylcery in Houston, Texas by the name of Dan Smith. Dan is a Level I USAC coach today who was instrumental in building RockShox early in their development. The most valuable lesson he ever taught me was that equipment will come and go, it’s the athlete’s heart that is the engine that will drive results. “Focus on the engine,” he’d tell me whenever I started to look at all the new tech at his store like titanium bolt kits to shave a whopping 20 grams off my aluminum Cannondale “Criterium” with Shimano 105. Learning to ride and race that bicycle in Okinawa, Japan was harrowing. Okinawa had the most congested roads in the world at that time, but they were awesome to ride on.
For the past 35 years, I have had an on/off relationship with road racing. I’d race for stints at a time, and then take breaks for kids, college, work, and a whole host of other things. Despite my inability to continually focus on racing my bike, I’ve never lost the love I have for being out on the road–especially in a good group ride. Some of the most enjoyable times I have spent with friends are talking over the panting and road noise of a small group mixed with taking turns on the front. I reengaged with cyclocross and road racing in Utah in 2008 where I was very active until I decided to really suffer and complete a PhD while still working a demanding full-time job. I am also an avid fan of professional cycling! My son and I have been photographed for magazines while “not pushing” riders up Empire Pass during the 2012 Tour of Utah. I’ve stood at the top of Tanners Flats heckling Ryder Hesjedal into eating powdered doughnuts, and I even had the pleasure of helping grow the mystique of Tanners Flats into the craziness that it became.
Team you’re a part of:
A small part of me died when Church of the Big was raptured up, so now I ride with PLAN7. The folks at P7 took me in after a bout of biomechanical trouble (fat?), and it’s been downhill ever since.
Why you’re on the board/why you want to help the Utah Cycling Community:
Even though I’ve had an on/off relationship with competitive cycling, I cannot imagine my life without it. As I look at the landscape of cycling in Utah, I see many opportunities. My vision is to bring all of the Utah cycling community together and hopefully bring down some of the barriers between the disciplines. Utah Cycling can be a big tent where Gravel Gods, Road Warriors, Mountain Shredders, Cyclocross Sufferers, and even emergent nonathletes can get along and grow the sport of cycling beyond what we’ve ever seen. The explosion of NICA races in Utah should prove that there is desire there, so long as there are safe places to train and race. Road racing habitat is being lost due to safety concerns of municipalities, the cost of equipment, and a host of other barriers to entry that I believe can be torn down to allow many new faces in.
My vision is to connect with governing municipalities to ensure Utah has a safe habitat for training and racing. That would mean that we engage with local law enforcement to teach proper “Share the Road” techniques, train our riders to safely navigate an ever-growing landscape of distracted drivers, and even work with trail sustainment folks like “Mountain Trails” for sustainable access to classic mountain trails for riding and training. In addition to established riders/racers, I’m interested in the emergent riders–those folks who go to a local bike shop purchase their first “real” bike, and then off into the wild blue yonder they go. This would be an entirely new demographic that has typically not been part of the UCA or USA Cycling. I will do this by reaching out to our Utah local bicycle shops and working directly at the grassroots level to offer experienced mentorship to new riders. We will develop a training guide to help the new riders understand what is and is not safe on the road, and include some safety equipment that could enhance their rides. Eventually, this mentorship will begin to cause a rise in athletic support for the sport of cycling.
I love this sport, and I’m ready to hit the ground (not) running to grow and expand the Utah Cycling Association.
Julie Quinn – Director of Communications
julie.quinn@utahcycling.com
Short introduction about yourself:
I’ma Utah native who never expected to marry a skier from the California mountains. We have two daughters, Natalie and Jayden, who both inspire me to reach beyond my preceived limitations and teach me how to be a better person than I ever dreamed I could be. After years of being a ski team mom, our oldest daughter, Natalie, joined the local NICA team (go Weber Warriors!). She had a great run and we LOVED discovering parts of Utah we would have never experienced. Now as a cycling mom, and wife of Henry who has started doing some races, too, I love driving support vehicles, making rice cakes, and being at the finish of whatever event they’re doing, whether it’s a weeknight ride or a World Tour race.
Professionally, I’ve worked in Education Leadership including overseeing statewide programs for years at the Utah State Board of Education. Now I’m self-employed and have enough flexibility with my schedule that it’s time to give back to this community that has done so much for our family. I hope to add value to the cycling community with skills I’ve learned over the years in program management, organizational leadership and applying bandages to road rash.
Holly Blanco- Board Treasurer
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