A ‘classic Philadelphia story’: How the city’s storied bike race came back to life

Carlos Rogers’ dream of reviving the summertime cycling race that zipped for years through Philadelphia and climbed the hills of Manayunk was beginning to look dim.

His quest — “a completely altruistic mission,” Rogers said — was dragging, and investors were not interested. He made phone calls and fired off emails in between cutting hair at his Old City salon and asked his customers if they knew anyone who could help. The Philadelphia Cycling Classic, which last ran in 2016, was dead.

“Who is going to give me a million dollars? Or who is going to give me $5?” Rogers said. “There were a few times where I just decided that, ‘You know, I’ve given it my all, and maybe this isn’t meant to be.’ I kind of dropped the baton a couple times. No one was cheering me on to do this. It was a completely independent effort.”

One of Rogers’ clients told him to call Eric Robbins, a well-connected business owner who gets his hair cut at Hush. Maybe Robbins could help.

“I wasn’t even sure what he was talking about,” Robbins said. “He was just passionate and excited about it. By the time I got off the phone, I had committed to something that I wasn’t even sure what it was. But I knew I had to be a part of it.”

» READ MORE: The Philadelphia Cycling Classic will return next summer after a 10-year hiatus

Robbins immediately called former Mayor Michael Nutter, a longtime friend, and told him he too had to help. Nutter was in. The three formed a partnership called Race Street Partners, landed a sponsor, and revived the race.

“That’s just so classic Philadelphia,” Nutter said. “We talk about Philadelphia being this great city of neighborhoods, which it is. But it’s also a great city of connections and relationships. Things happen in this city because someone has a passion, someone has a vision, someone has an idea. They connect with one person, they connect with another person, and, before you know it, it’s the epitome of it really takes a village. That’s the spirit of Philadelphia.”

And that’s how a salon owner found himself in City Hall on Tuesday to announce that the race will return on Aug. 30, 2026. Rogers didn’t give up.

“I’m just a normal guy who had an idea,” Rogers said. “My motto has always been the three P’s: passion, persistence, and perseverance. You can’t mount this effort without having passion. Whenever someone is passionate, as long as there is no finite brick in the road, you just keep going. And the persistence part is that I got a lot of ‘nos.’ I got a lot of people who didn’t answer emails, people who didn’t follow up with phone calls. It would have been easy to quit there. But if you believe in what you’re doing, you just keep going.’

Rogers organized his first race in 2011 after returning from New York. A Philadelphia native, Rogers moved to Riverton and thought the South Jersey town would be perfect for a cycling race. He knocked on doors, passed petitions, and received permits to close streets.

» READ MORE: What to know about the Philadelphia Cycling Classic’s return and history

So he thought reviving the event in Philadelphia — a race he once competed in — would be just as easy.

“I had the pot boiling for three years, and it was filled with spaghetti,” Rogers said. “I threw spaghetti far and wide.”

Rogers fell in love with cycling during college when his brother, who owns a South Street bike shop, gave him his first ride. He formed a team, climbed the Manayunk Wall next to Lance Armstrong, and rode all over the East Coast. Philadelphia, he thought, needed the race to return. He just needed help.

Rogers emailed every mover-and-shaker in the city. Rogers even emailed Nutter months before Robbins called the former mayor.

“He politely blew me off,” Rogers said.

It was polite, Nutter said. He was busy with other things and simply did not have the time for Rogers’ project. Months later, Robbins called and pushed Nutter to meet with them. They had to bring the race back, he told Nutter. Robbins said he didn’t give Nutter a choice.

“He was not polite,” Nutter said. “I was polite to Carlos. Eric was not polite to me.”

Next summer’s course will be the same as that the original designers outlined in 1985. The 14-mile circuit will start on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, zip up Kelly Drive to Manayunk, climb the famed Manayunk Wall, dip into Fairmount Park, pass through Lemon Hill, and spill back onto the Parkway.

“I give homage to the people who came before me and set the bar for this race and put this race on the map,” Rogers said. “It’s not my idea. This is just like taking a bicycle out of the closet, dusting it off, pumping up the tires, and recreating what was already here. This is not a new idea. I’m just grateful that I’m able to be a steward and carry the torch forward.”

» READ MORE: A visual history of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, from the Art Museum to the Manayunk Wall

The race regularly brought elite riders to Philadelphia as a tuneup for the Tour de France. But sponsorship money eventually dried up, and the race went away after 2016. Race Street Partners landed a deal with AmeriGas to be this year’s title sponsor, and each race — there is a men’s race and a women’s even — has a $75,000 prize purse.

“The passion of Eric and Carlos is evident,” AmeriGas president Michael Sharp said. “They have so much passion for this. This seemed like the perfect way for us to participate and be a part of the community. This is home for us, and to be involved in something that makes a difference to the community feels like the right thing to do.”

Nutter met Rogers and Robbins nearly two years ago in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton before they formed their partnership. The former mayor was already in. He loved the race as most of the course runs through the district he once represented on City Council. But Rogers didn’t know. This was the chance he had been chasing.

“I felt like I had 30 seconds to pitch my story. It was like, ‘Let’s get this out fast,’” Rogers said.

Nutter said Rogers’ energy captured him and felt the same way Robbins felt when Rogers called him. Nutter said he was like Renée Zellweger’s character in Jerry Maguire: “You had me at hello.” The race was back.

“It’s funny that Mayor brings up Jerry Maguire because at the end of the movie when Cuba Gooding Jr. gets tackled in the end zone really hard and people are coming around him and he’s laying back while everyone is cheering for him. He just says, ‘Wait. Don’t let me get up. Let me enjoy this moment.’ I feel like that,” Rogers said. “I have to pinch myself from where I started. This doesn’t happen. Races at this level don’t come back.”