Date | Early-June |
---|---|
Region | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
English name | Philadelphia International Championship |
Local name(s) | TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship (English) |
Nickname(s) | CoreStates, Manayunk |
Discipline | Road |
Competition | UCI America Tour |
Type | Road race |
First edition | 1985 |
First winner | Eric Heiden (USA) |
Most wins |
Bart Bowen (USA) Kiel Reijnen (USA) 2 wins |
Most recent | Eduard Prades (ESP) |
The Philadelphia International Championship is an annual bicycle race held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is described as "America's top international cycling classic, and one of the richest and most prestigious one day races outside of Europe." It is one of the longest single-day races in the U.S. at 199.6 kilometres (124.0 mi). The men's event is ranked 1.1 by the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport's governing body, which makes it the highest ranked single-day race in the Western Hemisphere after the UCI World Tour Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal and Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec. It is part of the UCI America Tour.
The race has existed since 1985, but its name has changed a number of times, because of the changing of names of its corporate sponsors, due to bank mergers and acquisitions. The title sponsor was originally CoreStates Bank, followed by First Union Bank in 1998, then Wachovia Bank in 2002. In November 2005, Wachovia withdrew its sponsorship. With assistance from former Philadelphia mayor and then-Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, a corporate sponsor was found in 2006; Commerce Bank made a four-year commitment. Due to its acquisition by Toronto-Dominion Bank in 2007, Commerce Bank became TD Bank in 2008.
The Philadelphia International Championship was once the final leg of a one-week, 3-race circuit called the TD Bank Triple Crown of Cycling. The races took place in Lancaster, Reading and Philadelphia. The opening race was the Lancaster Classic, followed four days later by the Reading Classic, with the finale in Philadelphia three days after that.