Athletes

I am in utter awe of the athletes who rode in the Chester County Grand Prix bike races that went through our township last week. I just got home from watching the July 4 Road Race, whose start and finish line was at Brooklawn on Newark Road. I was sitting on a stone wall, under a walnut tree, with a nice breeze, friends and a Victory beer. In contrast, the bicyclists were out there racing, hard, pushing themselves to their limits in 90-degree weather.
"This is like riding 92 miles in an E-Z Bake Oven," said the announcer at one point.

"That's a very good description," agreed one exhausted cyclist as he passed me, walking back to his vehicle.  

According to a press release I received the next day: "Over 400 cyclists in seven different categories competed in yesterday’s Chesco Road Race, which also served as the Pennsylvania State Road Race Championship for the Masters and Elite men’s classes.  The 13.2-mile circuit was an up-and-down challenge for cyclists who raced from 2 laps (26 miles) for juniors and novices to 7 laps (92 miles) for the pro/elite men’s category ..."
"Only half of the eighty riders who started the featured pro race were able to finish as temperatures soared into the mid nineties during the nearly four hour race. An early breakaway of nine riders built up a nearly four-minute lead before falling apart as the heat and hills took its toll in the closing laps."
From a spectator's point of view, it was great fun watching and cheering, even if we didn't understand the intricacies of racing strategy -- and what a nice way to show off our township's beautiful countryside. I understand there were some traffic problems earlier in the day on Newark Road between 82 and 842, and when I arrived at noon they had closed that stretch of the road. I parked at the Upland corner and walked in.