Philadelphia Cycling Classic: Chiara Consonni Wins in Crash-Marred Sprint

Chiara Consonni (Canyon-Sram) won the revived Philadelphia Cycling Classic on Sunday in a crash-marred sprint finale.

The Italian rode her way through the 20-strong lead group in the final straightaway, crossing wheels with Canadian national champion Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered-Health) who hit the deck along with a few other riders. Consonni kept navigating her way through the group to take the first win in this race since it was last held in 2016.

Alexandra Volstad (EF-Education-Oatly) finished second While Ella Sabo snagged third for Virginia’s Blue Ridge – TWENTY28.

Attritional racing whittled the 116-strong field down to only about 50 riders in the peloton by the final lap of the 100-kilometer circuit race.

A five-strong break of Emma Langley (Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment), Elisa Valtulini (Vini Fantini – BePink), Rachel Galler (FTP – Fulfil The Potential – Racing), Galen Bolard (Competitive Edge Racing), and Kim Stoveld (Automatic-Abus Racing) led the race into the final lap.

Stoveld, a Philadelphia native, had a great day in the break in front of her hometown crowds, but the WorldTour teams in the field had their eyes set on victory.

The day ended for the break halfway through the final of four laps entering the daunting Manayunk Wall, a grueling half-mile, 17-percent marquee feature of this historic course that was first run in 1985. EF Education-Oatly and Canyon-Sram hit the front and soon created a strong new lead group of Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly), Chiara Consonni (Canyon-Sram), Babette van der Wolf (EF Education-Oatly, Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-Sram), and Megan Guarnier (CCB p/b Levine Law Group).

They held a 20-second advantage to the greatly reduced peloton that was throttled by the Manayunk Wall, reducing from 50 to 20 riders.

But the peloton stayed in the race, pulling the leaders back by 12.5km to go. EF tried a couple of attacks but were quickly reeled back. There was a constant barrage of attacks through the finale of the race, but nothing stuck as strong teams like Canyon-Sram and Human Powered-Health worked to ensure the race ended in a sprint.

A move at 4km to go from Van der Wolf lit up the final pass of the Lemon Hill climb, creating separation with a couple more riders, but no one wanted to work with Van der Wolf and the promising looking attack was neutralized with 1.4km to go.

The finale came down to a chaotic bunch sprint as Consonni made her way through the group to take the victory in the United States’ highest ranked UCI race.