HTC-Columbia wins Philadelphia International Cycling Championship
They sweat under the blazing rays of June, going out of breath as their throats dried but they persisted. In the middle of a humid day, the 26th TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship in America unfolded as the cyclists rode for more than six hours in a bid to cross the finish line.
Before the race started, there were no solid predictions as none of the cyclists had an open chance to win the race. It was rather a day for the lucky ones and Matthew Goss turned out to be the luckiest on this Sunday. Goss is an Australian cyclist who runs for the HTC-Columbia team.
Goss has attempted this race for the last two seasons but has narrowly missed every time he ventured out. In his third attempt, he took six hours, fifteen minutes, forty six seconds to cover a distance of 156 miles.
The victory is very special for the team as this marks the second consecutive year that HTC-Columbia has been able to bag both the men's and women's titles. In Totenberg, Germany had been able to win the women's Liberty Classic who was another racer from the HTC-Columbia team.
Slovak Peter Liquigas Sagan of the Liquigas-Doimo team came in second while Alexander Kristoff from the BMC Racing team came at the third place. The finish time of all the three leaders remained the same.
Till the end of the race, it was hard to say who would be able to make it to the first spot as about thirty three other riders were competing with Goss in a head-to-head race at the end.
After the finish, Goss commented that he was in a good position to come out from the Logan Circle. He further commented that he made his move to power through with only about 180 to 200 meters to go for the finish line.
Goss had been granted an amount of $13,500 out of total prize money of $51,690 as the winner's share.
The total number of the participants in the race was well above two hundred but only sixty seven names made it to the final score sheet. Nathan O'Neil, the Australian rider had the lead with nine laps to go. The race began and ended on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and it came along the Kelly Drive, all across Manayunk, leading up to the famous Manayunk Wall and turned back through the Fairmount Park.
Will Routley from Canada had to struggle hard to set his pace when only five laps were left. At one stage, he was even successful to set a lead of 1:30 seconds from his closest rival. However, he was not very lucky on his last trip in Manayunk, where Routley struggled and got caught up by the pack that was chasing him.
This time around, the Goss' teammates on HTC-Columbia took full advantage of the situation and helped to push him to the front.
Goss told after the race that he was not in the best situation when he came off the Wall behind the first group. He told the media that they missed a few big breaks every now and then; therefore, they had to work very hard on the finish line. But at the end, he said that it was nice to win the race.
It was the first victory for Goss at the men's event whereas Totenberg grabbed her fourth title at the 16th Women's Liberty Classics. She covered a total distance of 57.6-mile in two hours thirty one minutes and thirty nine seconds. She was competing against one hundred and twenty others at the track, making it one of the biggest races ever.
For Totenberg, it was her second successive women's crown, which she had won in 2007 and 2005.
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