Bicycle Race

Today Dave and I went in to the city to watch the 25th riding of the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship. If you follow local Philadelphia news you know that the race almost didn't take place for lack of funding. However, happen it did. I've lived in the Philadelphia area all of the 25 years it has taken place (ok and 25 more before that but who's counting? ... well who is?...lol)....and I thought it would be an idea to see what the hoopla was about.
We toyed with the idea of getting up early, early and going into Manuyunk for the day. The racers do laps from the Art Museum area to Manuyunk and back for 156 miles. That's 10 times back and forth and then three final laps around the Art Museum area from Logan Circle to Lemon Hill. I've never been to Manuyunk (i wonder if I'm spelling it correctly). Well, actually I have but that was for miles 17-22 (roughly) of the Marathon. I didn't really have a chance to see it. However, we opted for sleeping in and taking the train to the Art Museum area instead.
This turned out to be a great idea. We arrived just as they were completed lap 6 or so. There were 3 lead riders followed 7 minutes later by the bulk of the pack. We watched them whiz by go around Logan Circle and whiz by again. We were standing at about 22nd street. We proceed up to the Art Museum steps area where we were treated to free water ice courtesy of TD Bank. There were a lot of booths there with games and stuff to occupy people while they waited for the racers to return. We climbed the Art Museum steps and then down around on Kelly Drive where we saw one more lap as they went through the "feed zone". Yes, that is what it was called. People stood there with water bottles and food bags. I'm amazed someone wasn't hurt. The racers really did not slow down to grab things. And when they missed, water bottles flew!
We continuned our walk down the other side of the Parkway and watched the final 4 laps from just above the finish line.
From this vantage point the raers went past us down around Logan Circle and we could see them come up again and cross the finish line. The final 3 laps were 'shorter' as they 'only' went to lemon hill and back so there was very small wait in between sightings. We were against the crowd barrier. When the riders came by it was awesome. They were so close and very very fast. We noticed that if someone leaned too far out they would hit a rider and that would start a huge crash and probably take out a lot of riders not to mention about a hundred or so spectators (including us). Obviously this did not happen but I'm not sure why.
I know little about bike racing and definitely do not know who the personalities are. Still it was exciting to see the pack catch up with the three leaders who when we arrived were 7 minutes ahead. Those three riders didn't even place. The announcer commented that they were swallowed up by the pack and ended up near the end. Wow!
So the hoopla was something worth watching. I'm glad we went. And I think we had more fun than we would have had in Manyunk. At least on race day. We'll go there another day.