Wilmington welcomes some of the world’s top competitive cyclists to town this weekend for the Wilmington Grand Prix.
USA Cycling has designated the seven-year-old event a Tier 1 criterium race. It’s one of only ten races in the country in that top tier.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/duphillyinterview.mp3|titles= WDDE News Director Tom Byrne's interview with Wilmington Grand Prix event manager Jerry DuPhilly.]
Event manager Jerry DuPhilly says Wilmington Grand Prix has slowly built itself into a premier event.
“We’ve had good competition. We’ve had good support. It’s been a good, challenging course. A lot of people come out. Cyclists like to ride in front of big crowds and we have some of the biggest crowds in the country that come out for a [criterium] race. They’ve all been the components to making this thing successful,” said DuPhilly.
That designation has helped the Grand Prix draw its strongest field of criterium competitors ever, according to DuPhilly.
“We have the top three men’s teams in the country as they are currently ranked [by USA Cycling] coming out. And there are the four individual top ranked riders that will all be racing here this weekend. On the women’s side, four of the top five racers will be here led by Erica Allar and three-time Grand Prix winner Laura Van Gilder, who was the points champion last year. So we have a star-studded cast,” said DuPhilly.
The weekend of racing gets underway Friday afternoon at 4 with the the Monkey Hill time trial which challenges the riders with a ride up the cobblestones on Monkey Hill in Wilmington's Brandywine Park.
Saturday's full slate of racing begins at 8am. The women’s pro race is at 2:15. The men’s pro race starts at 4pm.