Giorgia Bronzini (Colavita Forno d'Asolo) may have said that she didn’t feel on the best form for the Liberty Classic, but that didn’t stop her outsprinting the entire field to take the win ahead of Shelley Olds (Diadora Pasta Zara) and Jennifer Purcell (Team Danbury Audi.)
"I did not feel good on the first climb and I was trying not to spend energy in the race but save it," Bronzini said. "I would take the [Manayunk] wall in the first position and I finish it in the middle every time. On the last lap I spent a lot of power to stay up on the climb and I tried to recover for the sprint."
Helping Bronzini was Philly resident and qualified sprinter in her own right, Theresa Cliff-Ryan, who finished third last year. But she was also not feeling her best.
"My legs were not the greatest but I can still sprint, so I knew if I could make it to the finish I could do it," Cliff-Ryan said. "We did a lot of work and in the last 5km I told Giorgia we both [should] make the sprint because that is our best chance."
Cliff-Ryan said that the final kilometre was very rough and said that another rider grabbed her shoulder at the 1km point and pulled her back. Still she was able to fight back and help her teammate as well as taking a top-ten result.
"There was a lot of fighting in the sprint today but we got the win, and with the world champion too."
Second-place Shelley Olds did not see as much trouble in the sprint but had hoped the earlier part of the race would have been harder to force the other sprinters to burn more matches.
"It was pretty easy today which was unfortunate," Olds said. "I had a small team here which made it difficult to make it hard for everyone else. I think the big teams wanted a sprint and kept it easier for everyone."
"I had a team-mate there in the end that jumped in and kept it clean. She jumped at 500 meters and that instigated another rider to jump so I followed that wheel and tried my own sprint from 250 meters. But Bronzini was on my wheel and came around me at the end."
The only breakaway of the day was a solo effort from Canadian Lex Albrecht (Juvederm-Specialized) who went solo on the first lap and was not caught until the last lap. She was rewarded for her efforts with the Queen of the Mountain prize.
"After the first lap I saw I was going really well so I just decided to gun it and see how long I could stay out for," Albrecht said. "It's pretty special because this was only my second time doing this race and last year I crashed out early, so I have been looking forward to this race since!"