Three-time USPro road champion Megan Guarnier retired after 2018 but made a surprise return to racing earlier this year at USPro Road National Championships and finished 11th in the road race. She then continued director duties, staying stateside while Technical Director Tim Mitchell handled any international races for the CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Firm team.
The two planned to co-manage the next big UCI race in the US, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic on August 30. Now Guarnier has found her way from a seat in a team car to the saddle of a team bike, headed back to a race she won in 2016, which was the last year for the "Philly Classic". The race is back and so is Guarnier.
"We have a few riders that will be racing Giro della Toscana Femminile with the US National Team and unfortunately, one of our riders, who was racing incredibly strong in Europe, had a season ending injury. We feel that it is important to show our support of the return of the Philly Cycling Classic with full representation from our CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group team," Guarnier told Cyclingnews.
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The four-day Giro della Toscana Femminile in Italy takes place August 27-30, and the roster was not confirmed yet for Team USA, but Guarnier had many fewer riders she could keep in the US for the Philadelphia contest.
What does that mean really? It's not a stunt, she wanted a full squad. And she said it was a unique way to help her young riders navigate the 14.4-mile circuit.
"It will be exciting for me to be back in the peloton, allowing a first-hand account of the race in real time, as opposed to being in the driver's seat and hearing it over the radio.
"In this scenario, we can make quick decisions and execute confidently, while drawing on my experience from my time in the peloton. As I'm working with our riders on the road, we will also have one of the team directors, Tim Mitchell, in the car who has a great feel for racing dynamics."
The US domestic elite squad brings USPro U23 silver medalist in the time trial and road race Jorja Bond and Ella Brenneman, who had top-10s in the same U23 races. There are also Lizzie Gunsalus, Sabrina Hayes and Elizabeth Grier, with the 41-year-old veteran Guarnier. It is a young squad, with the five teammates averaging half the age of their 'boss', most of them not even out of grade school when Guarnier took the victory in Philadelphia 10 years ago.
Absent from the CCB lineup is USPro women's U23 criterium silver medalist Lyllie Sonneman, who broke her elbow and wrist while racing on a block of Belgian kermesees. She finished runner-up in two races and won GP Désire Goossens-Drongen.
"She was having such a good Euro block! She's super tough though," Guarnier said.
At the pinnacle of her 10-year career in 2016, Guarnier won GC titles at the women's Giro d'Italia and Tour of California to secure the first-ever Women's WorldTour title, and in between she soared across 'Manayunk Wall' for the victory. That final year, the women's race and men's race both ended at the top of the tough 17% gradient in the Manayunk neighbourhood located eight miles away from downtown Philadelphia.
This year's course will take in the famous Manayunk climb again, but on the original course used from 1985 to 2012 for the men and the first 19 years for the women's race, known as The Liberty Classic. The route will begin and end near Logan Circle and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia with multiple passes of the hilly circuit.
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