2013 Philadelphia Bike Race Set To Go With New Route
By John Ostapkovich
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's annual professional bicycle event has a new lease on life, and a whole new look, months after a previous sponsor didn't renew.
With apologies to Pink Floyd, all in all it's another trip up the Wall, as the new Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic will run its men's and women's races Sunday June 2nd with, for the first time, equal prize month, $30,000 each.
The race routes are shorter (no Ben Franklin Parkway or Art Museum Circle) and kind of turned on their heads, starting and finishing on Lyceum Avenue, at the top of the Manayunk Wall. Race Director Robin Morton says this mirrors some one-day events in Europe.
"They go through small communities and while this is part of the City of Philadelphia it has that very European village feel with tons of restaurants and businesses and cafes." he says, "So I think there was nothing we could do to make this course better than move it to the top of the wall."
The women's race will be in the morning, the men's in early afternoon, instead of the staggered starts that had been done.
