U.S. Pro Cycling Championships : Schuler Wins the Title in Record Time

Tom Schuler hung on to become the top American professional cyclist Sunday by winning the third running of the $105,000 CoreStates U.S. Pro Cycling championship.

Schuler, 30, of Minneapolis, a member of the 7-Eleven team, covered the 156-mile course in 6 hours 4 minutes 43 seconds, easily beating the record time of 6:22:15 set by Thomas Prehn last year.

Cesare Cipollini of Team Prince was second, Roy Knickman of the Toshiba-Look team third and Jorgen Marcussen of Team Prince fourth. All were timed in 6:04:43.

The action started early in the 156-mile event when Schuler, Knickman and nine others broke away from the pack of 84 riders on the first lap of the 14-mile circuit. Four laps later, Schuler and Knickman pulled away on the Manayunk Wall, a hill which rises 250 feet in less than half a mile.

Knickman, who arrived from France just hours before the event, and Schuler rode alone until Marcussen and Cipollini chased the pair down with less than a lap to go. Schuler and the Team Prince teammates left Knickman 20 seconds behind on the last trip up Manayunk Wall, but Knickman caught the three with a few miles to go.

Schuler, whose 14-year career includes over 100 victories, “started to get nervous,” with the Team Prince riders working together, and outsprinted Cipollini down Benjamin Franklin Parkway to claim the title and a check for $20,000.

Cipollini’s second-place finish was good enough to give Team Prince the $5,000 team prize, with Knickman’s Toshiba-Look team finishing second and Schuler’s 7-Eleven team third.

The start of the race was marred when Schwinn rider Danny Van Haute crashed hard after colliding with a spectator leaning over the barricade. Both were taken to the hospital for observation, the female spectator with a concussion and Van Haute with a cut above his eye. Neither injury was considered serious.