Manayunk Wall

About once a week, Rollin Wilber and Sally Lou Nation walk halfway down the steep slope in front of their house in Manayunk to look at the Wall. Sometimes they stand in silence, following with their eyes the trail of curling honeysuckle and Virginia creeper and drinking in the thick fragrance of the place. Most of the time, they talk excitedly about their hopes for what is known as the Manayunk Wall - a natural stone formation buttressed by man-made retaining walls in the 200 block of Lyceum Avenue, one of Manayunk's steepest hills.

A 19-year-old woman was charged with DUI and aggravated assault after her 20-year-old boyfriend was run over by a car early yesterday while he was trying to push it up the Manayunk Wall, police said. Mary Opel, of Ridge Avenue near Heritage Drive, in East Falls, was steering the disabled 1996 Volvo sedan east on Levering Street about 4:15 a.m. while her boyfriend tried to push it up the steep hill, police said. The car rolled back over him and dragged him 25 to 35 feet, police said.

On June 17, the CoreStates U.S. Pro Cycling Championship, the event that put Manayunk on the international bike-race map, returns for the sixth year. More than 100 top professional cyclists will vie for $110,000 in prizes in the 156-mile race. Competitors will pedal off at 9 a.m. in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and proceed to the "Manayunk Wall" on Levering Street before heading down Manayunk Avenue to the museum at speeds reaching 50 miles an hour. While waiting for the cyclists' return, spectators along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway can browse through Cycling Expo '90, 60 booths of bicycle equipment, clothing and other products.

A 20-year-old man is in extremely critical condition after he was run over by a car he was trying to push up the hilly street known as the Manayunk Wall early today in Northwest Philadelphia, police said. Police said the man's girlfriend was behind the wheel of a disabled 1996 Volvo sedan on the 200 block of Levering Street about 4:15 man when he attempted to push it uphill. The street has a steep 10-percent grade at that spot, police said. That means the elevation increases 10 feet for every 100 feet traveled.

The hill - rising about 250 feet in less than a half-mile - is a killer when you walk down it. It's beyond description when you ride a bicycle up it 10 times. Yesterday, a crowd of thousands lined the narrow streets - Levering Street and Lyceum Avenue in Manayunk - to watch the pain as cyclists in the CoreStates U.S. Pro Cycling Championship challenged the Manayunk Wall. From yesterday morning until mid-afternoon, the hill alternated between race course and block party, and Philadelphians just loved it all. Tim Cosenza of Kensington was sipping beer, leaning against a guardrail at a rowhouse in the 100 block of Levering.

The world's longest, rowdiest and most exhilarating block party - also known as the CoreStates U.S. Pro Cycling Championship - rolls through Philadelphia for the 12th straight year tomorrow, perhaps to a more enthusiastic audience than it has known in the past. The U.S. Pro will start at 9 a.m. on Benjamin Franklin Parkway and is scheduled to finish there, in celebration and perspiration, some six hours later. The nation's richest one-day bike race will offer $115,500 in prize money, including $25,000 for first place, and, as before, will take its contenders over a 10-circuit, 156-mile course whose most prominent feature is the 285-foot Manayunk Wall.

The CoreStates U.S. Pro Cycling championship, easily mistaken for the world's longest and rowdiest block party, plays Philadelphia for the ninth straight year on Sunday. To appreciate this event - it begins at 9 a.m. at the Philadelphia Art Museum and ends in the same place 10 loops and six hours later - as something more than a gang of lean and Lycra-layered athletes zooming through the streets in manic pursuit of a $110,000 purse, the following may prove helpful: Cycling is almost as much a team sport as football, with performers who carry out specialized roles and sacrificial duties that can determine the success of race strategy.

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg and Bernhard Eisel will try to defend their Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling championships Sunday when they race, respectively, in the Liberty Classic for women and the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship for men. Both races will begin and end on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The race for the 24th annual men's event is 156 miles. The women's race is 56.7 miles. The races are the third legs of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling. The competitors in both the men's and women's divisions opened in Allentown on Tuesday before moving on to Reading yesterday.

The race-day parties have grown larger and louder over the last 20 years in houses on Levering Street along the famed Manayunk Wall. Some residents even required a cover charge yesterday to watch the Wachovia USPRO Championship and Liberty Classic from their porches. Others have gone the way of major sports stadiums and, for a fee, hung beer advertisements on their porches. But even with the changes of the last 20 years, cyclists laboring repeatedly along the wall and up the towering hill seem able to capture a crowd's spirit.

The return of the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, highlighted by the Manayunk Wall, has been set for Sunday, June 6. It will mark the 26th running of the country's largest single-day, all-professional bicycle race. A new highlight of this year's race weekend will be the Philadelphia Bicycle Show, presented by Bicycling Magazine on June 4 and 5 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. After 2 days of exhibition, the consumer show, with more than 100 cycling, health, fitness and lifestyle exhibitors, will move outdoors alongside the race course at the foot of the Art Museum on race day. The event's companion race, the Liberty Classic, will celebrate its 17th anniversary and feature the world's top women's teams and about 1,000 casual cyclists.

As he drove along Manayunk Avenue, Ed Weirauch recalled tales from his grandmother, remembering that her reason for having strong legs was from walking the hills of the sloping Philadelphia neighborhood. On Sunday morning, Weirauch was fortunate to have a good set of brakes as he drove a large white van up the famed Manayunk Wall during the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship. In his fourth year behind the wheel of the race's press van, Weirauch is in charge of dropping off photographers and reporters at various locales along the 14.4-mile course.

For the second consecutive year, the winner of the Philadelphia International Championship pro cycling race came from the HTC-Highroad racing team. The team opted not to send defending champion Matt Gross to the race, but Alex Rasmussen, of Denmark, kept the championship with HTC-Highroad. Rasmussen finished the 156 miles, featuring 10 circuits of about 15 miles and the vaunted Manayunk Wall, in 5 hours, 59 minutes, 4.6 seconds. Last year's runner-up Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale)

Alex Rasmussen could feel his legs burning as well as the hot breath of the thick pack of cyclists as he dashed down the final straightaway on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Sunday's 27th TD Bank Philadelphia Men's International Cycling Championship. Neither could prevent the curly-haired Dane from winning the 156-mile race in a photo finish that had the top 11 riders finish one second apart. Meanwhile, Giorgia Bronzini, the tiny Italian wearing the rainbow jersey as the reigning world road champion, tamed the Manayunk Wall with relative ease and had plenty of stamina remaining to pull away in a sprint and win the 57-mile Liberty Classic, the women's race.

The locals cheered in their hearts as the team climbed the legendary Manayunk Wall yesterday - and it wasn't even riding bicycles. Instead, this breakaway group was comprised of officers in blue with bulletproof vests that read "State Police" in front and "Liquor Enforcement" in back. One by one, the pack of 20 walked up Levering Street and Lyceum Avenue - a/k/a the Manayunk Wall - looking for any lawbreakers among the crowds at the TD Bank Championship Bike Race. The law officers asked for ID from some potential underage drinkers.

Alex Rasmussen could feel his legs burning as well as the hot breath of the thick pack of cyclists as he dashed down the final straightaway on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Sunday's 27th TD Bank Philadelphia Men's International Cycling Championship. Neither could prevent the curly-haired Dane him from winning the 156-mile race in a photo finish that had the top 11 riders finish one second apart. Meanwhile, Giorgia Bronzini, the tiny Italian wearing the rainbow jersey as the reigning world road champion, tamed the Manayunk Wall with relative ease and had plenty of fuel remaining to pull away in a sprint and win the 57-mile Liberty Classic, the women's portion of the race.

What: 27th TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship and Liberty Classic. When: Sunday. The men's 156-mile race starts at 9 a.m. and should end around 3 p.m. The women's 57.6-mile Liberty Classic starts at 9:10 a.m. and should end around 11:30. Where: On a 14.4-mile road course from Logan Circle, along Kelly Drive, through Manayunk and Fairmount Park and back. Who: 180 men and 100 women from eight countries are expected to ride. TV: Comcast SportsNet, noon-3:30 p.m. Best places to watch Start/finish line: This is where all the action is leading up to the 9 a.m. "go" for the men and the 9:10 a.m. start for the women.

AGENDA What: 27th Philadelphia International Cycling Championship When: Sunday, 9 a.m. for men's race (approximate finish time 3:10 p.m.); 9:10 for women's race (approximate finish time 11:30 a.m.) TV: Comcast SportsNet, noon-3:30 Teams: 18 teams with riders coming from eight countries. More than 180 riders will compete. In the women's race, more than 100 riders will compete. Course: For the men, 156 miles, broken into 10 laps of 14.4 miles each. For the women, 57.6 miles, broken into four laps of 14.4 miles each.

It's time to ride up the Manayunk Wall once again. Pro cyclists from 30 countries are expected to attend the annual TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, America's biggest single-day race on Sunday. Organized by Pro Cycling Tour, the event will give local cyclists chances Saturday and Sunday to compete in races leading up to the championship race. The six-hour, 156-mile-long race that features more than 200 professional cyclists signifies the unofficial kick-off to summer for some.

On Sunday, cyclists, race fans, and revelers from around the world will once again converge on the city for the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, the grueling 156-mile road race that includes 10 trips up Lyceum Avenue, the legendary "Manayunk Wall" that rises 285 feet on a steep grade in just a few blocks. But like Manayunk, once a far-flung neighborhood of blue-collar families who passed rowhouses down from each generation, the bike race has become a victim of its own success and excess.

Spectators drawn to Manayunk and Roxborough this weekend for Sunday's bike race be warned: Rowdy and drunken behavior will not be tolerated this year. City and police officials yesterday promised to rein in some of the out-of-control partying now associated with the race by more aggressively enforcing laws like those barring public drunkenness and carrying open containers of alcohol. Besides more officers on the street, the city is also introducing a "Night Bike Court" tomorrow to deal immediately with law breakers.