June 7, 2010 (Philadelphia, PA) – Canadian-based squad SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy placed two riders in the top 10 at the USA’s biggest one-day race, with Guillaume Boivin finishing 6th and Martin Gilbert 7th at the 26th annual TD Philadelphia International Championships. Fellow Canuck Joelle Numainville from Webcor Builders claimed fifth in the women’s 17th annual Liberty Classic.

“It was a long, long day, six and a half hours,” said SpiderTech’s Andrew Randell following the one-day stage race, which included 10 climbs up the half-mile, 17% grade Manayunk Wall. “I think team SpiderTech was pretty awesome as we were always in all of the moves. We had everything covered, which is really solid. The big plan was to have as many guys in the finish as possible and I think we had quite a few guys in the finale.”

Another Canadian, Jelly Belly rider Will Routley, struck out on a solo breakaway for roughly 90km (56 miles) of the 230km/144 mile race. Eventually he was caught and fell off the back to finish 60th.

Canada’s Zach Bell, of Kelly Benefit Strategies, made the top 20 placing 20th as his role transitioned to the designated sprinter toward the of the race, his teammate Reid Mumford told us.

“One of the guys wasn’t feeling good at the end, so we switched sprinters and had a couple teammates really push to get us to the Manayunk Wall,” said Mumford. “We came in with good position and tried to stay with the leaders. Scott Zwizanski made a good move for us and made it to the group in front, which was 8 or 9 guys up the wall, but we just couldn’t stay with those guys.”

Mumford said four Kelly Benefit riders remained in contention with only a few laps left, but a puncture forced the team to compensate and left only one rider to lead out Bell as the new sprinter.

Canadian veteran, Anne Samplonius with Team Vera Bradley, finished in the top 20 among a field of 100 women in the 92.16km/57.6-mile Liberty Classic. The field was the biggest in race history.

“Over the climb, the fourth time around was when it split up,” said Samplonius. “I don’t know what the group size was when it went up the wall, it was less than 20 riders. Then there were attacks going, which kept the speed up. (Ruth) Corset (TIBCO) had a really good attack on Strawberry Hill, so that was hard.”

Samplonius said HTC-Columbia, which saw their rider Ina Teutenberg (Ger) win the race for the fourth time, start the lead out against a headwind with only a short distance remaining.

“We got around the circle, and I jumped with about 500 meters ago to try and keep it high, and then the sprint just happened and I didn’t see it because I sat up.”

Samplonius was pleased to see lots of Canadian representation at the women’s race with approximately 22 riders primarily from Equipe Cascades-ABC Cycles, Equipe du Quebec and Team Nanoblur-Gears competing at the Liberty Classic.

“This is the first time I’ve seen so many riders from Quebec at this race,” Samplonius said. “Along with those of us on American pro teams we had quite a Canadian contingent here, so it was good to see.”