June 3/12 19:04 pm - Philadelphia International Championship report and results

Posted by Editoress on 06/3/12
 

The world’s top cycling teams descended on the City of Brotherly Love on Sunday, June 3 for the TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship. With this 28th running, the race again established itself as the biggest and most prestigious one-day race in North America, with professional teams targeting the event as a priority win.

Although the start list showed much more parity amongst the teams, the results sheet told a different story as one team, Team Type 1-Sanofi occupied three of the top four positions -- led by winner Alexander Serebryakov of Russia.

In his first year as a top-level professional Serebryakov's role for the team was to lead-out teammate Aldo Ino Ilesic, a rider with experience at this race.

"It is my first time at this race and I was following Aldo the whole time," Serebryakov said. "When everyone went to the left we went to the right and that's how we got to the front. I opened the sprint but held it!"

Team director Vassili Davidenko, himself a racer here many times, told his team that the first goal was to get the protected sprinters into position at the end -- he was not very particular about finish order as long as it started with first.

"I can't complain because all of the guys were there, and it's a dream finish!" he said.

Ruining the complete sweep of the podium was veteran American sprinter Freddie Rodriguez (Team Exergy). A three-time winner here, Rodriguez said that while the shortened distance of the race made for different tactics, it was still an exciting race.

"It definitely made it an easier race," he said. "It forced teams to have to chase a little more and it's still an amazing one-day race, very tactical. It's a pure sprinter's race now for sure and a race that can be controlled as you saw -- they timed it perfect."

"We were battling out with Team Type 1 and were stuck a little in the wind and when they came by, they came by fast," Rodriguez said about the sprint. "I picked the left side and it was a wall of Team Type 1 guys, all I could do was stick my bike in between them."

Showing the importance of this race on the U.S. and international calendar, Rodriguez said he is using results like this to make the 2012 Olympic team.

"My main goal is trying to make a bid for the Olympic team, and it would be cool to go to London and help out," he said.

In addition to the near-sweep of the podium the team also won the King of the Mountain competition with American Kiel Reijnen grabbing many points in the early breakaway. Having a rider in the break allowed the team to rest while the other teams were forced to chase, giving them additional help in the finale. As well, many teams try for this competition to guarantee them at least one spot on the final podium.

"The plan was if we can, let's try it because any podium is important," said Davidenko. "This is our first big race in the U.S. after racing in Europe this spring. We are an American team and we wanted to show our American fans the team winning. We have over 40 podiums in Europe so far this season.  This race was a great warm-up for us as we go back to Europe to race the Tour de Suisse and Tour of Austria."

The men’s action, featuring more than 150 of the world’s top cyclists, started at 10:45 a.m. on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.  The pros rode a shorter course for the first time in this race’s history – 124 miles instead of the traditional 156.  The shorter, faster run started with  three opening laps of a 1.5 mile circuit, then seven laps on the main 14.7 mile circuit that includes the infamous Manayunk Wall, followed by five, heart-pounding loops that measured 3.36 miles each.

Pro Cycling Tour News report