Philly

So here is the long awaited Philly report……..sorry about the delay, things were a little mad afterwards….(well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!).

As a bit of background, the Liberty Cup in Philadelphia, P.A is the highest ranked and biggest one day race on the U.S calendar. It is massive. There are so many people cheering you can barely hear yourself think, and there is so much excitement in the air even a non-cycling fan couldn’t help but get caught up in the atmosphere! (I think ......in reality they are probably cursing all the closed roads and millions of crazed fans lining the streets!)

Michele worked like a little dynamo to get us all organized for this race; in fact my bet is that she probably didn’t sleep for the 4 days before it!

Anyway, we all congregated in Philly the Saturday before the race, and pre-rode the course together….it is technical so definitely warrants a recon if there is time.
Here is Philly 101: After starting right in the centre of town, you head out along Kelly Drive, through Manuyunk township at mach 9 speed, and straight into the rude awakening of the infamous Manuyunk Wall (which is a super steep piece of tarmac heading straight UP), you come flying down from this faster than the speed of sound, back onto Kelly drive then up Strawberry Hill catapulting back down onto Kelly drive and then up Lemon Hill, before careering onto the Champs Elysees of Philly (otherwise known as Logan Circle), which is where the finish line is located. The women complete the circuit 4 times for just shy of 60 miles (100kms). As you can see, the nature of the course means it is destined to consistenly be a fast and furious race!

We were treated to an incredible meal the night before the race, at one of our sponsors ‘ Betty’s Speakeasy, which is a speciality fudge shop owned and operated by the wonderful Liz who was a fantastic cyclist in her day (she gave us some secret Philly tips while we ate – perfect!).
SO after a DEVINE meal, we got to sample fudge (personal favourite moment!). If you are visiting Philly you would be CRAZY if you didn’t visit Betty’s Speakeasy and try this stuff…it is the cutest, quaintest little shop and it sells music for your mouth, and Liz is cool. What more could you want?! Because I know you want to go, the address is 2241 Grays Ferry Ave Philadelphia, PA

Anyway, back to the race…..we were up EARLY on race day. Since racing started at 9.15am, we had to be up 3 hours before hand in order to get a little bit of kai (food - I've decided I am going to teach you all Maori -the native language in NZ) in our puku's (stomachs) and get ourselves well warmed up and ready to roll!!

The race itself, as always, was FAASSTT. Everyone is battling for position leading into the wall, and it just makes the race faster and faster and faster……….Positioning is everything in this race, but everyone knows it so it is a constant fight for the front.
In short (ok, because I can’t remember every little detail of the race) it was a very tough day out…… Anna finished 24th, Casey (who we had the absolute pleasure of having guest ride for us!) finished 28th and Kate V finished 55th. Kristy unfortunately had a substantial crash and was unable to finish, and I had a bad day (lets just say I am not friends with the Manuyunk Wall).

To attest how fast our race really was, the women’s field passed the men’s field, who started 15 minutes before us and theoretically should have been moving a lot faster than us. Don’t quote me on this, but I think that is probably a world first.

A HUGE thank you must go out to all the people who helped us for this race – especially Michele & Brad and all those who helped feed and water us, cheer for us, take care of our wounds (external and internal!). Philly is a really fun, exciting, all consuming, exhausting day out!

Aroha
Dale
p.s for your info, NZ dominated, coming 2nd and 5th in the women's race (Jo and Cath) and 2nd in the Men's race (Hendy). Power to the Kiwis!