How a hairdresser revived one of America’s biggest bike races

American bike racing didn’t get much bigger, better or louder than the Philadelphia Cycling Classic.

Between 1985 and 2016, this staple electrified the American racing scene, attracting some of the world’s best cyclists from across the Atlantic. For two decades, it also doubled up as the USPRO Champs too, meaning that the first American rider across the line became national champion.

The Manayunk “Wall”, with its 14 percent gradients and raucous crowds in party mode, made young racers dream and broke those of many wannabe contenders.

After a 10-year absence, the emblematic East Coast race is back from the dead, thanks to a tenacious Philadelphian hair salon owner who felt a calling.

“I never thought I would do this,” Carlos Rogers tells The Athletic. “I felt the same as everybody else: man, we miss this race.”

Rogers has seen it from the sidelines, the backroom and the saddle. Growing up in Manayunk, the former textile hub north of the center, he first watched it pass as a teenage fan, excited by the police department’s Harley-Davidsons roaring ahead of the peloton.

While competing as an amateur up and down the East Coast against the best teams in the U.S., he also took part in the 1994 edition in a composite squad.

“I was super thrilled,” Rogers says. “I lasted 130 miles or so. Not having real experience, I didn’t eat enough so I bonked pretty bad. But I did ride alongside [then-world and defending champion] Lance Armstrong.

“As we’re heading into Manayunk, I said, ‘Hey man, I’m from Philly.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, home town favorite?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m from the home town, I don’t know if I’m the favorite.’

“It was a thrill back then. The race just had gravitas — the whole city came out. It’s more than just an event. When I speak about it now, I get chills.”

However, attracting sponsors and financial support became increasingly difficult. Unable to find enough backers to cover the $1million cost of the race, the original race’s last edition was held in 2016.

“When we lost it, it left a big hole in the community because it was not only a bike race but, as we call it, the people’s race,” Rogers says. “Bringing the stadium to the streets, like no other sport there is. That’s what drove me years later to get where we are today.”

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After racing the event, Rogers moved on from his home city, settling across the Delaware River state line in Riverton, New Jersey.

He founded a criterium there in 2011, starting by knocking on doors of residents and presenting a three-page proposal to the council. He likens it to the baseball film Field of Dreams, mentioning its most famous quote: build it and they will come.

One of life’s doers, Rogers had also fundraised a dog park single-handedly for five years. “I’m very community-involved, just because I feel a certain calling. And that’s what it felt like with Philly.”

The brainwave for a reborn race came after streaming the inaugural Maryland Cycling Classic in August 2022. Feeling the FOMO, he emailed race director Terry Haseltine, saying that he was inspired to bring back his home race and wanted to chat with him. He got a reply the very next day.

He also contacted veteran Robin Morton, a Philadelphian, former race director of the event and the first female manager of a European men’s team, who has her own event management company, g4 Productions.

She gave an outline of the previous budget and was happy to share her expertise in regular calls. “She is an encyclopedia. She knows everything,” Rogers says. In September 2022, Rogers set himself an ambitious goal: run the race in 2024.

He was not sure where to start. While cutting hair at Hush Salon, which he co-owns with his partner, he asked his patrons who they knew.

“One of my old clients was like, ‘You need a deck.’ I was like, ‘what’s that?’ I just thought I’d call some CEO and they’d be like, ‘That’s great, here’s the money.’ It didn’t work out that way.”

His hope was that securing a title sponsor would help to get more support flooding in. Initially, he asked for $1million, sending many physical copies of his deck, firing off cold emails and making hundreds of phone calls to strangers.

“When I get invested in something, it can be somewhat all-consuming,” Rogers says.

He came up with his three Ps — passion, persistence, perseverance — qualities he would need in spades. Sometimes, he had just 30 seconds to pitch to executives.

After a year of making little headway, he briefly gave up before going back to his Philly pipedream. In early 2024, a co-worker at Hush Salon mentioned he should contact Eric Robbins. The Philadelphia entrepreneur was impassioned by the idea.

What’s more, he knew Michael Nutter, the city’s mayor between 2008 and 2016 and a former councilmember in the 4th District, who had been important in keeping the race alive during his tenure.

After their first meeting, Rogers left the room unsure how Nutter felt about the proposition. The second time, he pitched all the past work he had done and there was an unmistakably positive reaction. “He looked at me and said, ‘I love this city, I love this race and I believe in you,’” Rogers says.

The hairdresser was brought to tears. Nutter’s support was the breakthrough he needed, a released valve for all his hard work and effort: “Because I could have stopped at any time and nobody would have known — nobody would have cared. It wouldn’t have mattered and I’d have known I’d given it my best shot.” Together, Nutter, Robbins, and Rogers are the three co-founders.

Still, the race needed a title sponsor to help finance the reborn race. In spring 2025, the growing organisational team was put in touch with Bob Flexon, an avid cyclist and CEO of AmeriGas. Partnering with the race was also a chance to reconstruct their brand and image after years of financial struggles.

They had their name: The Philadelphia Cycling Classic powered by AmeriGas. From there, it was a race against time to get the necessary logistical, legal and official details confirmed and apply to the national federation and the sport’s governing body, the UCI, by mid-June 2025 to ensure inclusion on the next year’s international calendar.

Rogers did not initially realize the scope of the work needed to turn dream into reality. “It takes a village,” he says. He has been helped by the likes of race director Morton, operations director Raffaele Casale, whose cousin Jerry was a co-founder of the first race, and local PR guru Mary Stengel Austen.

Together, the organizational team sourced a PR firm and came up with a logo, website, social media accounts, TV coverage, policing, a two-day expo, even having their own beer made at a local independent brewery.

The comeback of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic could not be a drop in the ocean on the cycling calendar.

“It has to be big enough that the people who remember it feel like it’s similar to what it was and the people that heard about it understand the look, feel and what it can be,” Rogers says.

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That also meant fostering goodwill with the locals living in the race’s centerpiece. Just as Geraardsbergen’s De Muur became synonymous with the Tour of Flanders, the Philadelphia race’s signature is the Manayunk “Wall”.

The toughest climb of the 14.4-mile lap course, this narrow, residential avenue, charged by cheering fans on race day, climbs over 250 feet in half a mile.

Aware of a “love-hate relationship” with the event there, given past issues with public drunkenness and urination, Rogers has met residents and called the president of the neighbors’ association early in the process, getting a letter of support.

For race day, he is trying to bring back “O’Brien’s watering hole”, a Wall mainstay for several editions. It was the creation of a neighbor with a makeshift sprinkler and sign, cooling riders and spectators down on the steep gradients.

While such touches pay homage to the race’s past, there are present realities to face. Holding a top road race in America is expensive.

Safety is paramount, having city services close down streets and arrange sanitation. Then there is the expense of airfare and lodging for teams as well as advertising, on social media and billboard, and broadcasting costs for 6abc, the channel streaming the race locally and internationally.

“The costs are significant, and if you’re going to do it the right way, you have to be prepared to spend money,” Rogers says. “Like I said before, we don’t want this to be a blip on the calendar, to have people not realize that it’s happening.”

Parity in terms of prize money and recognition was also important too, with a $75,000 equal purse for the men and women’s races.

There are eight WorldTour teams across Sunday’s pair of UCI 1.1-rated events. On Sunday, over 62 and 120 miles respectively, Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) and Lidl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons are among the stars hoping to join Lizzie Deignan, George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong on the list of winners.

For Rogers, simply getting to the start on picturesque Benjamin Franklin Parkway has been a herculean effort and represents a victory in itself. The Philadelphian has done it all for the love of cycling and his calling.

“It’s been such a journey,” he says, tears welling in his eyes. “I’m just a normal guy, trying to do something good, and here we are.”

Rogers hopes the 2026 races are just the beginning. “If they [the fans] are just as excited as I am and we get 100,000 spectators, then yeah, it’s worth it,” he says.

“It’s not one and done — no way,” he adds. “I’ve put on the calendar: I’m in it for 10 years. You don’t do this amount of work to make it go for one year.”

Rogers may not have been the hometown favorite when he went wheel-to-wheel with Lance Armstrong and eventual winner Sean Yates 32 years ago, but he will probably be the proudest and most popular man in Philly on Sunday.