Here comes the Pellaton

Last Sunday I went and watched the Wachovia Bike Race in Manayunk. I watched part of it on Main Street, and the rest was spent on the infamous Manayunk Wall. If you haven’t seen the Pellaton pass by you ten feet away going 35 miles an hour, then well, frankly, you are just letting life pass you by. This is, of course, a lot different from the action on the Wall. You see the pure agony on their faces as they the hill, one out of the ten times during the race. Their jerseys are open. Sweet is pouring down their face. The pain in their expression is something that you will never forget. They almost look like they are foaming at the mouth.

But once you see them go by a few times, the real show is the crowd. There must be at least 20 random Keggers on the Wall. They are equipped with DJ’s, Live Bands, Food, Slip and Slides, you name it. People play Beer Pong and Flip Cup on the sidewalk. Most of the music that I heard was Old School Hip-Hop, Tribe, The Pharcyde, The Sugar Hill Gang, Black Sheep, Slick Rick, and much more. None of this 50 Cent shit. In fact, in my whole walk along the wall, I heard absolutely no crappy new Rap music. Thank God for that.

I used to go to a party on the Wall every year when I was a kid at my Aunt’s place. It was great. You would watch the race on the TV in the AC, and then when they came up the Wall, you would run downstairs to see them, and then run back up to the AC. It is definitely a different experience being own your own and of drinking age. You wake up the next mourning with a hangover and sunburn. I remember last year I saw a drunk kid go up to a cop and ask, “To whom do we owe the ability to get drunk on the street like this? Mayor Street?”

If you can’t go to a race, then seeing it on TV is still fun. All I can say is that I can’t wait for the Tour De France. Three weeks of none stop action. I want to see killer crashes and crazy drunk fans in the mountain stages swarming all the riders. I want to see the strategy. The attack, the defense, the counter attack, the breakaways, the drowns on the team taking one for Il capo di tutti capi, and that great announcer, with his awesome voice saying, “Here comes the Pellaton.”