PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 It was a great day for cycling fans, as the Philadelphia Cycling Classic wrapped up this afternoon with as much enthusiasm from onlookers as when it began this morning.<\/p>\n
Chiara Consonni, from Italy, won the women\u2019s race this morning with a time of 2:34:55.<\/p>\n
She overcame Canadian Alexandra Volstad for second and American Ella Sabo for third by mere inches in a crash-filled final stretch. <\/p>\n
German Tim Torn Teutenberg, whose family is its own professional cycling dynasty, finished first in the men\u2019s race with a time of 4:20:55.<\/p>\n
He edged out Robert Donaldson, from the U.K., for second, and fellow German Jonas Rutsch for third by hundredths of a second in a white-knuckled sprint for the finish this afternoon.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s race biked approximately 62 miles, and the men\u2019s race roughly 120 miles, completing a 14.4-mile circuit that stretched from the art museum to Lemon Hill all the way to Manayunk. Athletes for both races competed for a $75,000 prize purse.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first time Philadelphia has seen the internationally beloved race in a decade, drawing more than 200 cyclists from 28 different countries. <\/p>\n
Mayor Cherelle Parker and other city officials were among the throngs of fans lining the track, cheering on the cyclists.<\/p>\n
\u201cBorn here in our city, to bring this legendary tradition back \u2014 man, I\u2019m excited,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThis is one Philly, a united city.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cyclists face down the dreaded Manayunk Wall once again<\/p>\n
With the return of the Cycling Classic also comes the infamous wall, a nearly half-mile stretch of brutal 17%-grade hill in Manayunk. <\/p>\n
Cyclists in the race faced a gruelling climb that tested their strength and endurance, conquering a total of 210 feet of elevation.<\/p>\n
Although he\u2019s never tackled the Manayunk Wall himself, Joe Simon, an avid cyclist, said that some of the hardest parts are the two quick turns at the foot of the hill that saps riders of their momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] a lot tougher,\u201d he said. \u201cStarting from scratch is a killer. I like to have a head of steam when I\u2019m hitting my hills.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fans were thrilled by the impressive sight of cyclists negotiating the climb.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impressive that anyone can do it once, twice, or more times repeatedly in a single effort,\u201d said Mara Sears, watching from the sidelines. \u201cSo it\u2019s great to see professional athletes do what us mere mortals probably can\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n
Others, like Kerry Fields, were inspired by the effort. She said she used to be more into cycling, but watching the race made her want to brush the dust off her bikes. \u201cIt\u2019s a great excuse to take advantage of whatever the Philly trails have to offer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For Chiara Consonni, the women\u2019s race champion from Italy, the climb was \u201creally hard, but we won, so everything is okay.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time in the U.S. so I will have a nice memory.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 It was a great day for cycling fans, as the Philadelphia Cycling Classic wrapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11768,14810,69,64404,71,70],"class_list":["post-275590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-cycling","tag-manayunk","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-cycling-classic","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}