Community Corner

Phoenixville Gears up For Bike Racing Thursday

The center of town will be turned into a race course. Expect big traffic detours.


They move at speeds that would be illegal on some local streets if you were driving a car.

The adrenaline and the pedals will be pumping fast and furious when the Chesco Grand Prix bike race series rolls into Phoenixville Thursday from 5-9 p.m.

Road Closures will Start at 4 p.m. Thursday

According to a Phoenixville Patch blog post by Phoenixville First the event will close Bridge and Church Streets, between Gay and Starr, and part of Starr and Gay Streets. Main Street will feature the Expo Area, and the Start/Finish line will be around Main and Bridge Streets. The criterium style race will be .81 miles/lap.

2013 marks the return of this high quality series of criteriums (spectator-friendly competitive cycling events) and cycling road races in towns, villages and the rural countryside of Chester County, Pennsylvania.  The annual ten day festival celebrates cycling, showcases Chester County and promotes the National Velodrome being planned for Coatesville.

The nine event series will begin on July 4th with the return of the popular Chesco Road Race and holiday barbeque at historic Brooklawn in Unionville horse country and will end on Sunday, July 14 with the Chesco Tour for recreational cyclists.

The downtown criterium series will run daily from Sunday, July 7 and conclude with the popular Kennett Square finals on Saturday, July 13.  Each criterium will feature a card of exciting afternoon and evening races for amateurs, elite women and professionals, mostly held on downtown circuits of one mile or less. Designed to bring people into town on a summer evening, the entertaining 4 to 5 hour criteriums will again include music, professional announcing, celebrity appearances, youth races and more.

Find out what's happening in Phoenixvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Phoenixville Race Schedule:

4:00PM                          Roads will begin to close

Find out what's happening in Phoenixvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

5:00PM                          Women’s Race

5:50PM                          Kid’s Race, ages 4-5. 100 Yards

5:55PM                          Kid’s Race, ages 6-7. 100 Yards

6:00PM                          Amateur Cat. 3 Race, 24 Miles (30 laps)

6:55PM                          Kid’s Race, ages 8-10. 200 Yards

         OPENING CEREMONIES FOR FEATURE RACE

7:10PM                           Pro 1/2 Men, 41 Miles (50 laps)

8:45PM                          Awards Ceremony

9:00PM                          Approximate time, Re-opening of Bridge Street

*Information largely provided by the Chesco Grand Prix website



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