A Day at the Races

Although I don't follow bike racing that closely I have always wanted to see the Philly International Cycling Championship. I have seen pictures of the riders going up the Manayunk wall, Lemon Tree Hill and zipping along Kelly Drive and just wanted to see it in person.

This year I joined the Philly bike club to get to know the area in and around Philly so when I saw they had some rides on the race day I decided to make the trip in to see the race.

Since I didn't want to deal with the crowds and parking I took the Riverline from Bordentown to the Aquarium in Camden and then rode over the Ben Franklin to get to Philly. The ride over the Ben Franklin was actually easy and nice. The weather was a little cloudy so the pictures I took didn't come out to great but the view was still nice.

Philly has a lot of roads with bike lanes so it was no problem getting to the Art Museum near where the race started. I got there about a half hour before the race so I had a chance to ride the course a little and see some of the hubub going on. There were a lot of vendor selling and giving away stuff. There were a lot of people milling around but it wasn't real crowded.

They cleared the roads around 8:45 am and the race started at 9:00 am. The first 3 lap go around the Eakins Oval to Logan Square and back then they head out on the 14.4 mile course which takes them out to Manayunk and beyond.

After the first 3 laps were over I headed out with the club for a ride. We headed through Fairmount Park and stopped along to course the see the racers a few times before heading out for a ride around town. When ended up at Lemon Tree Hill where the club has an area set up to watch the race which included food and drinks. I hung around for a little while talking to some people from the club before heading back home. All in all it was a good day and something I may do again next year.