Philly International Bike Race
Posted by jon on June 10, 2008
On Sunday the annual international bike race happened here in Philly. It’s a really big event and very prestigious. What’s great about it is that the course runs to within 4-5 blocks of where we live.
We live on a big sloping hill and the race organizers take advantage of that and force the competitors to ride up a section of the hill that at times seems almost vertical ! Its called the Manayunk ‘WALL’. Yes indeed its a real bitch for the riders but as spectators it’s totally amazing as you get up close and personal with them as they slowly and painfully cycle past.
If you have ever seen a professional bike race, the biggest problem is that because they travel so fast you barely get chance to see them so the ‘Wall’ came to our rescue on Sunday.
Also we are having a heatwave at the moment so the poor riders had to do the course 10 times in 95 deg heat for 5 hrs ! This is also great for us as we saw them every half hour so we could move to different parts of the course. Needless to say it was a drinkfest, as lots of students and local residents who live in Manayunk (neighboring area) got into the beer on this hot day.
Click on the below clip of film taken by us, Harry loved it and was trying to touch them as they were indeed within touching distance, also the ’Wall’ does not look as steep as it actually is !
