Reijnen wins Philly Cycling Classic

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UnitedHealthcare's Kiel Reijnen emerged victorious atop the Manayunk Wall to take the inaugural Philly Cycling Classic. The 27-year-old finished a frustrating third at the US Pro road championships last weekend, but this time he timed his sprint effort to perfection on the leg-searing finish, putting seven seconds of daylight between himself and runner-up Jesse Anthony (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) while Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie Sportswear Development Team) claimed third at 11 seconds.

"I knew I had the legs, I knew I had the form," said Reijnen. "I like climbing but I'm not a pure climber. I have a good sprint and this climb is kind of perfect for that. It's just long enough to hurt the sprinters and just short enough that the climbers can't run away.

"I was King of the Mountains here last year so I knew this climb suited me and I was definitely saving it for the end."

The Optum team did the lion's share of the work to chase down the late breakaway of Bruno Langlois (Equipe Garneau-Québecor), Scott Zwizanski (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies), Chad Beyer (Champion System), Eric Marcotte (Elbowz Racing-Boneshaker Project) and Kennett Peterson (Firefighters) as the race approached the town of Manayunk.

Perfectly positioned after the quick succession of turns which bring the peloton off of Manayunk's Main Street and onto the Wall, Reijnen jumped clear on the climb to take his second victory of the season after winning the Tour of the Gila criterium.

"I came into that first right hand off Main Street and into the second right hander in third wheel and before the left [Alex] Candelario [Optum] actually dropped his chain and I snuck around him. So I went onto the Wall in second wheel and [Ken] Hanson [Optum] pretty much pulled off immediately. I hesitated and I sat up a little bit, Cando came by and I didn't even jump on his wheel because I was expecting a surge from the peloton but I looked back and saw the gap.

"I got up to Candelario, waited, hesitated again, saw the gap wasn't any shorter and with 300 to go I just went. I wasn't planning on going quite so early, but when I saw the gap I had to take advantage of it."

For Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies, the final time up the Wall was all about getting Alex Candelario and Jesse Anthony into position.

"The guys just did a massive lead-out into the last corner for Alex Candelario and I," Anthony told Cyclingnews. "When your teammates get you into such excellent position it's definitely extra motivation and the noise on the Wall was unbelievable.

'It was one of those sprints where I kept telling myself 'don't over-think it'. It's a long finish, but there's no draft. There's not really much conservation being behind someone so you just go as hard as you can. You've got to meter your effort a little bit because you don't want to blow up.

"For me I just went as hard as I could as soon as the steep part hit. But Kiel just had an amazing pop. He won that race fair and square."

For third place finisher Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie Sportswear Development Team), the podium placing was a continuation of a rich vein of form which landed him a third place overall result at France's Flèche du Sud plus a stage win and overall victory in the Paris-Arras Tour in mid-May.

"Oscar [Clark] had been in the break all day and still did an awesome job of positioning me and Joe Lewis going into the base of the climb," Rosskopf told Cyclingnews. "We went into the climb top-10 and sprinted from there, everyone's going as hard as they could."

"I'm sure I got passed right after the corner because everyone sprints right there, so I just stayed seated, hung out for a little bit. Then with probably 500 metres to go I really started sprinting. You can't sprint for two minutes straight so I was just remembering to take it a little easier at the bottom and get it all back in the final few hundred metres."

How it unfolded

The opening laps were more of a fight for the sprint and mountains classification, than for the race win itself, and four riders set out on the first lap to go for the points: Tom Zirbel (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies), Bobbie Traksel (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Fabio Calabria (Team Novo Nordisk) and Dion Smith (Predator Carbon Repair), but at the end of the first lap, Calabria and Traksel were swapped for David Williams (5-hour Energy p/b Kenda) and Logan Hutchings (Elbowz Racing-Boneshaker Project).

Smith and Zirbel swapped turns taking points at the KOM point and intermediate sprint, respectively, but their move fell victim to intense pressure from the peloton, which split in two as they chased the four down after 74km of racing, on lap four.

Smith still managed to get the KOM points at the end of lap 4, but after the halfway point of the race, a new 18-rider group emerged at the head of the race. The numbers ebbed and flowed until an attack by Optum's Mike Friedman pulled clear seven riders, with Jeffry Louder (UnitedHealthcare), Matthias Friedemann (Champion System), Eric Marcotte (Elbowz Racing-Boneshaker Project), Bruno Langlois (Equipe Garneau-Québecor), Scott Zwizanski (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Luis Enrique Davila (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda).

Langlois mopped up KOM points along the way, as the break split and reformed several times until a new leading group of seven emerged near the end of the ninth lap comprised of Zwizanski, Beyer, Oscar Clark (Hincapie Sportswear Development Team), Daniel Holloway (Amore & Vita), Langlois, Kirk Carlsen (Predator Carbon Repair) and Marcotte.

Langlois and Zwizanski would drop their breakaway companions on the penultimate ascent of the Manayunk Wall and after reaching Kelly Drive three riders would join the Equipe Garneau-Québecor and Optum rider at the front: Beyer, Peterson and Marcotte.

While a diminished peloton was hot on their heels, nonetheless the leading five would hold steady with a 20-second lead late into the Philly Cycling Classic endgame.

The five riders managed to hold off the chase, however, until the very last moment, only being caught on Main Street in Manayunk just ahead of the climb.

"As the group got smaller and smaller up front more teams had incentive to chase behind and it just didn't work out for the breakaway," Beyer told Cyclingnews. "We were working really well together but I was getting a little tired at the end and wanted to save it for the last time up Manayunk in case we stuck it."

"I was confident that our team had a great plan behind me and I knew that everyone was riding good," Zwizanski told Cyclingnews. "I was trying to ride the break smart so if we made it I'd try to win my hometown race and not just finish.

"We were caught coming down Main Street and our guys were actually on the front and I gave them a last little burst to give them more draft into the Wall."

Optum led the field to the base but it was Reijnen who had the jump, winning by a handful of seconds over Anthony.