Bike Race Organizers Switching Things Up This Year
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's that time of year again when cycling enthusiasts head to that riding mecca - the Manayunk Wall - or anywhere along the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic course on Sunday.
But a big change is happening this year: the women's race is the featured event.
There are only seven Women's World Cup racing events around the globe, and the cycling world's governing body -- the UCI -- has upgraded the Philadelphia race and added it -- an elite one-day race in the U.S. -- to the UCI World Cup calendar.
"Philadelphia has a very European feel to it, especially with the finish in Manayunk," says race organizer Robin Morton.
Morton says they are lengthening the women's race by one lap, and the start/finish line again will be at the top of the circuit's main climb on the Manayunk Wall:
"These are women's Tour de France level teams, Olympic champions, world champions."
The women will race after the men, rather than before them. And once again, there will be equal prize money.
The men's pro race, reduced from ten to nine laps, will cover nearly 111 miles and start at 8 a.m. Sunday. It remains a premiere one-day road cycling event in the U.S.
The women's World Cup race, a total of six laps, covering about 74 miles, starts at 12:30 p.m.
The 12-mile course winds through Roxborough and East Falls, down Kelly Drive to Lemon Hill, and then returns to Manayunk along Main Street.
In the past, the race would start and end along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and Morton is not ruling out a return to that course configuration in the future:
"That's a possibility. It's definitely on the table."
