Race Report - TD Bank Philadelphia International
By Neil Shirley
Sunday June 7th was the 25th consecutive running of the TD Bank Philadelphia International. Philly is the iconic 156-mile road race that is the closest thing we in the States have to a European Classic. The race includes the legendary 17% grade Manayunk Wall that is always a spectator hotspot. Thousands of screaming fans pack into the one-mile stretch on the climb creating an incredible feel for the riders suffering to the top.
Philly was one of the biggest goals of the season for the Kelly Benefit Strategies squad. Coming off of a top-5 finish last year with Alex Candelario, we were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to step things up and get a rider on the podium. Kelly Benefit Strategies also had a VIP tent along the start/ finish area with a lot of our sponsors present adding to the pressure.
Sunday’s weather forecast was calling for blue skies and a very pleasant high temperature in the low 80’s. My wife and 18 month old daughter were able to make the trip to Philly for the third straight year as well. It was a welcome sight to see my family after being on the road for almost two weeks already.
Neil Shirley (Kelly Benefit Strategies) rides strong at the TD Bank Philadelphia International.
Photo Courtesy Kelly Benefit Strategies
The race started out unusually slow with a lazy field content to soft pedal for the first few laps. This allowed Daniel Holloway from the US National Team to get off the front and eventually gain thirteen minutes on the lethargic field. Once the field finally got fired up at about the 50-mile point the race made up for the slow start with a flurry of attacks.
On the seventh of ten times up Manayunk a strong move went off the front with twenty riders that included five Columbia riders, two Fuji-Servetto, two Liquigas, three BMC, Zwizanski and myself for Kelly. I thought this might be the winning move but Fly-V and Ouch each only had one rider in the group so both teams combined to close the gap down one lap later.
Going up Manayunk the final time I was pleasantly surprised how fresh I still felt. At that point of the race your generally dipping into the last bit of energy to make sure you stick with the front selection over the top of the climb but today it was almost effortless. Once over the top it was my job to tag any moves that went off the front over the next few miles before we started to set up for the sprint. With Columbia riding the front there was no way any move was going to get away and it was destined for a seventy-man bunch sprint. We had lost our last lead-out man, Zach Bell in a crash earlier in the race and a few of the guys on the team had tired legs so we were going to be short handed for the lead-out. My job was to hit the front at 1,800 meters to go and take it to 1k to go before dropping off Mumford and Candelario. It was a simple plan but didn’t quite work out as we had hoped. Mumford crossed wheels with another rider and hit the deck hard causing a few riders to go down with him and causing Cando to loose his momentum. By the time Cando could get back up to speed the podium positions were out of reach and he rolled in for 11th. It’s too bad when 155 miles of the race goes great and then that last mile is the difference from a great race to just average.
I was very happy with how I rode and especially how I felt. It was the best I’ve ever been at Philly and the most I’ve been able to contribute to a team effort. I know with the form I have right now that the Tour de Beauce will be a good race for me. Beauce is seven stages over six days starting on Tuesday June 9th. Nothing like doing a 6.5-hour race on Sunday, traveling all day Monday and then doing a 100 mile stage on Tuesday!
Thanks for reading.
Neil Shirley
