For around 30 kilometres on 30 August, Rachel Galler was at the front of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic. Behind her was a peloton containing Canyon//SRAM, EF Education-Oatly and Human Powered Health, along with the Olympic champions Chiara Consonni and Kristen Faulkner, and for a while none of them seemed particularly concerned about bringing her back.
To get into the main break, and to do it on a stage at that level, was an experience that’ll stay with me for a long time
On the final lap, as Galler’s five-rider break approached the Manayunk Wall for the last time, the WorldTour teams moved to the front and the gap disappeared. “I took a glance back and saw how quickly the peloton were coming into the bottom of the climb,” she said. “I couldn’t follow the attack, and I dropped back before quickly being swallowed up.”
It was the end of the day’s main breakaway. For the three British riders who had travelled to Philadelphia, though, the significance of the trip went well beyond the result.
Galler, Anna Boniface and Phoebe Roche all race for FTP Racing, and none of them are paid to do so. Galler, 35, is a freelance ecologist. Boniface, also 35, came to cycling from running and only began racing in 2024. Roche, 21, has a longer background in cyclocross and cross-country mountain biking but has raced on the road for just two years, and is about to begin her final year at university.
Their normal racing world is Britain’s domestic scene. Philadelphia offered something very different: a UCI 1.1 on fully closed city streets, with live television, WorldTour teams and crowds packed onto the Manayunk Wall. More striking still, to all three, was the sense that the city actually wanted the race to be there.
A late-season opportunity
The ride came through a composite team assembled by JAKROO USA for the first Philadelphia Cycling Classic since 2016. Galler, Boniface and Roche joined three riders from the American team 1KFlips, meeting them for the first time on a video call a week before they travelled. “It was the first time we had ever met and we all gelled really well,” Galler said. Boniface remembered conversations about “bikes, foods, cars hating cyclists and different slang and accents”. They cooked and rode together, and by race day they were operating as a team.
JAKROO covered the trip, including flights, accommodation, food and support staff. For Boniface, the main cost was a week’s annual leave, and she had not even been certain she wanted to go. “I hadn’t really clocked what an amazing opportunity it was going to be,” she said. “I wanted to end my season a bit earlier to focus on hill climbing, but Rachel quite quickly persuaded me.”
Roche needed less convincing. “I’ve not been to America, so the opportunity to race in a different continent is exciting,” she said.
When the right move went
The course covered four laps of a 23-kilometre circuit taking in Lemon Hill and the Manayunk Wall, which pitches up to 17%, before two shorter finishing laps brought the total to 100 kilometres. The field numbered 123.
Galler had gone to Philadelphia intending to get into the break. Several early moves failed before she spotted Kim Stoveld, a local rider with a front-row grid position, heading up the road. “She was a gridded rider and a ‘one to watch’, known as a local legend in this area,” Galler said. “So I knew this was a good shout.”
The main thing that stood out to me was the timing and their experience to go when it mattered
This time it stuck. The five riders built an advantage of around a minute and stayed clear for 30 to 40 kilometres, contesting the sprint and climbing points each lap before regrouping and pressing on. Behind them the strongest teams seemed content to wait, and for Boniface that was one of the first signs of how different this race was from the domestic events she knew. “When the break went, there wasn’t any panic to close it down,” she said. “But coming into the last lap, they all went to the front and together brought it back.” It was not simply a matter of speed. “There seemed to be a lot less random attacking and more alliance between the WorldTour riders. The main thing that stood out to me was the timing and their experience to go when it mattered.”
Galler had always suspected that the final ascent of the Wall would end it, but the break kept riding. “We rode just as hard to stay away because you never know what could happen,” she said. “It’s not over until it’s over.” When the catch came, with around 20 kilometres left, it at least gave her a brief moment to recover before the climb. She finished 90th, 8:08 behind the winner, but the result was only part of her story. “To get into the main break, and to do it on a stage at that level,” she said, “was an experience that’ll stay with me for a long time.”
Five metres
Roche was having a very different race. She had spent the day concentrating on her positioning, particularly before each ascent of the Wall, and saving as much energy as she could. On the final climb, the margin between staying with the leaders and losing them was tiny. “The pros flew up and I just didn’t have the legs to stay with them,” she said. She was left around five metres off the front group, which gradually stretched away on the descent.
Boniface, in the second group, tried to set Roche up for the finish. Roche was first across the line from that group, 29th overall and ninth among the under-23s, 2:54 behind Consonni. Boniface finished 56th.
The gap was biggest on the climb. They are physically stronger. But tactically I felt the gap wasn’t that big
For Roche, racing WorldTour opposition was revealing. “As expected, the gap was biggest on the climb. They are physically stronger,” she said. “But tactically I felt the gap wasn’t that big.” Following professional wheels through a fast peloton became part of the education. “Having the opportunity to follow pro wheels in races is great for learning to navigate through a fast peloton. I definitely learned a few things.” Galler summed up the feel of it more simply: the peloton was “fast yet chilled, aggressive yet smooth”.
‘It wasn’t an inconvenience’
What stayed with all three riders, though, was not only the level of the racing but everything around it. For Boniface, the closest comparison was not another bike race but the London Marathon, which she has run three times. “It felt much more like the vibe of big city marathons than any road race I’ve done,” she said. The Wall lived up to its name, but she remembered it mainly for the neighbourhood around it. “People were out having a bit of a party, whether they liked cycling or not.”
Roche had never raced in front of anything like it. “The Manayunk Wall was insane. I’ve not experienced crowds this big before, and there was such good energy and the wall was extremely loud,” she said. She called it probably the best-organised race she had ridden and, most importantly, one that felt safe.
For Galler, being caught brought the chance to experience what she had missed while keeping the break alive. “Hill climbing holds a special place for me and I’m always so focused and tunnel vision that I usually miss all of the spectators and what they bring,” she said. “This meant I could really appreciate the support and the noise, and I was able to see the joy it brought to the crowds watching from the sidelines.”
What impressed her most was the civic pride around the returning race. “Philly gave us a warm welcome,” she said. “The locals and crowds were very proud that this race was making a comeback. They wanted us there.” She remembered immaculate streets, the build-up and promotion, and the Philadelphia skyline behind the finishing gantry. Boniface noticed the same thing, on roads that were fully closed, “not even rolling closures”, with an expo and live coverage. “It wasn’t an inconvenience. There was a hype about it,” she said. “Everyone was talking about it and excited for the race to be back.”
For a British domestic rider, the difference was hard to ignore. Boniface pointed out that towns and cities across Britain regularly close roads for marathons and half-marathons, albeit with mass participation alongside the elites. Road racing, beyond town-centre events such as the London Nocturne, rarely commands the same licence. “I don’t see anything like this happening here, which is such a missed opportunity,” she said. She believes British racing could learn from Philadelphia, from Belgium and from the running industry.
The ride hasn’t led to anything other than sheer belief in myself to finally put myself out there
Bringing something home
The race left all three with more confidence. Boniface, still relatively new to bunch racing, came away knowing where she needed to improve. “I had such a good time,” she said. “It was so, so much fun, but I learnt a huge amount and gained a lot of confidence.” For Galler, the break provided something harder to measure. “The ride hasn’t led to anything other than sheer belief in myself to finally put myself out there,” she said. And Roche, who stays with FTP for 2027, came home with a conclusion of her own. “I know now I can still be competitive in a pro race,” she said. “Having opportunities like this has given me more belief that I can continue to progress.”
Opportunities like this are rare for domestic riders, and this one depended on a sponsor willing to fund a composite team and, in Boniface’s case, on a week of annual leave. Nor is the race itself easily replicated. It was absent for a decade before Race Street Partners, whose co-founders include the former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, revived it with AmeriGas as presenting sponsor, and Boniface acknowledged that it “clearly had some major sponsors for financial backing”. Her argument is less that Britain should copy Philadelphia than that it should aim higher. “I really hope the UK can have more ambition with road racing,” she said. She wants big one-day races where WorldTour, Continental and elite development teams can share a start line, “as exposure to that level of racing can really help riders and teams grow”.
The results suggest that exposure cuts both ways. WorldTour riders took six of the top seven places, and even Roche, the best-placed of the three, finished almost three minutes down. Yet third place went to Ella Sabo, a 20-year-old riding for the American team Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28, and Roche came away believing the tactical gap was smaller than she had expected. Whether a British organiser could stage something comparable depends as much on funding, local authorities and road closures as on ambition. For three FTP riders, it was at least a first-hand look at the standard, and the kind of event, they rarely meet at home.
