Philly, Let's Talk

Well now I can say I've raced Philly (more accurately the TD Bank International Championship). It lived up to its reputation quite well. Personally, I attacked early in the race, dragged quite a few bottles of water, Perpeteum, and Coke up to our team leaders, and survived seven trips (out of ten) up the famed "Manayunk Wall." The approach to the Wall was every bit as hard and cutthroat as I'd heard. Every goddam lap, for the three miles preceding the actual climb, the whole field would jockey and fight for position and take all kinds of risks to move up. The field would spread from curb to curb, twenty-wide across the road approaching the final three turns before the Wall. One moment of inattention meant losing fifty spots. I managed to get up there in good position twice. The rest of the time I found myself slamming on my brakes going into the turns, and giving up 30-45 seconds over the top of the Wall, which made the chase back into the field absolutely awful. Enough talk. More photos. Meet Philly: 

Now here's a taste of the madness on Lemon Hill.

In case you didn't follow along, we had a pretty stellar race. Quinn was in the early move, and came within a point of winning the climber's jersey. Andres attacked with Mabcebo late, and took third in the climber's competition. Carlos and Freddy worked together inside the final few kilometers, and placed 10th and 12th respectively. Here's what the guys looked like after finishing 156 miles of racing:

YAHOO!!!!