Tour of Pennsylvania

26-28 June 2008

Off to PA for the weekend to visit our friends Tom and Kate - and to watch a bit of bike racing!
The inaugural Tour of Pennsylvania is a six day stage race across PA for young riders - a so called 'espoir' race for riders under 25 - espoir being the French word for hope.

Joanne and I arrived in Bedford in time to watch the finish of stage 3 which started in Camp Hill. This stage brought the first two major climbs of the race at Tuscarora Summit and Sideling Hill.

The story of the day was that of Peter Stetina who broke away from the pack on the first climb and stayed off the front all day. By the time we arrived the race announcer reported that he was nearly 3 minutes ahead of the pack. Once over the final climb the group began to reel him in, but as they started the final kilometer he stubbornly refused to be caught. It was until they came into sight of the finish that he was caught about 75 meters from the line. He still managed to pick up the King of the Mountain and Most Aggressive Rider Jerseys.

Stetina receiving KOM jersey

On Friday we made our way to an overlook on the first climb of stage 4 - Mt Ararat - the former site of a rather famous landmark on the Lincoln Highway (PA rt 30) - for years it was known as the Grand View Hotel, but in 1978 it was renamed The Ark - they kept the slogan on the side 'SEE 3 STATES AND 7 COUNTIES' - it was in pretty serious disrepair the last time Joanne and I passed through the area in the late 90's on a trip to see nearby Falling Water and Kentuck Knob (houses by Frank Lloyd Wright) Sadly it burned to the ground in 2001 leaving only the view.

Thanks to the joys of the google image search I discovered on this persons Flickr site that it also lives on in what looks to be an excellent model train garden at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Joining us on the side of the road was a cameraman and reporter for the Versus network - below is a shot of them trying to take in the long shot of the peloton coming up through the valley on the approach to the climb.

From them we learned that Senator John Kerry was riding in the Z TEAM car for the day to watch the race - he is an avid cyclist and a supporter of the team - apparently they were dropping him off later so he could fly to Saudi Arabia for a meeting...

We also learned from the Versus folks that it might be possible to make a detour around the race and get to Latrobe in time to catch the finish. We raced across Western PA in and out of heavy rains arriving in Latrobe with what we thought was plenty of time, but instead watched the race zip past us at a traffic light just outside of town. We still managed to catch the podium ceremony and other festivities. Peter Stetina came in 4th on the day and wound up holding onto and winning the overall KOM - I think he might be a name to remember.

A few more pics are posted HERE