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The return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic after a decade away also means the return of tens of thousands of partying spectators along the 14.4 mile route.
For John Carpenter and Julie Heberle, the parents of professional cyclist Robin Carpenter, that means the return of their annual house party on Sunday in Manayunk. Just half a block away from the infamous Manayunk Wall climb.
After years of chasing Robin around the country and the world, Carpenter joked that it will be great to watch his son and not have to move too far from his front door again.
“It’s super nice just to be able to tumble out of your backyard, walk a half a block and watch them go by over and over again for the day, and have all your friends with you doing it. It’s going to be great,” he said.
Carpenter and Heberle first encountered the Cycling Classic in 1985, when they were invited to a friend’s watch party in Manayunk. They then moved to Manayunk in 1988, and soon after started hosting their own parties on race day.
Robin’s first introduction to the race was setting up a lemonade stand with his friends for spectators on race day. By age 11, the cycling bug started to bite and Robin won his first prize money, $15 in a race up the Manayunk Wall.
As his career developed, so did his parents’ knowledge and involvement with the sport, to the point they were hosting riders and teams in their home during race weekends.
Heberle said watching Robin compete in his home race was “absolutely glorious and exciting.”
“You don’t get to see your kid work very often, and you certainly don’t get to see your kid work in front of a whole lot of other people very often and to do so well,” she said.
Now 34, Carpenter will be a veteran presence for the younger riders on Modern Adventure Pro Cycling (look for the maroon jerseys) as he returns to a race he competed in four times, before it was shuttered in 2016 due to a lack of sponsorship.
How did his parents deal with the race and a big day on their social calendar being gone? “Poorly,” Heberle said, and with the race gone, so were the parties.
“We worried that people would just show up, first week of June like, ‘Well, don’t you all just have a party?’” Heberle joked “Well, no, we don’t.”
When they heard the Cycling Classic was coming back, they felt equal parts disbelief and elation, especially after finding out Robin would be able to compete in it. Then came the queries about the party and the decision to revive that tradition as well.
With that, they also get to bring out the cowbells again.
‘They’re noisy and they’re exciting’
Carpenter and Heberle still followed their son throughout his professional career in the U.S. and Europe. Along the way, they began the tradition of collecting one specific race day keepsake at each race: cowbells that are made for each race.
“They’re noisy and they’re exciting. So the riders can hear them for sure,” Carpenter said.
Most Americans — outside of the farm belt, obviously — associate cowbells with the famous SNL sketch about Blue Öyster Cult’s hit song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” But in a tradition stemming from the European Alps, the farm equipment was widely adopted as an effective noise maker in winter sports, as well the Summer Olympics and cycling.
“They are the loudest thing on the race course,” Carpenter said. “Except for one race, the national championships down in West Virginia, somebody brought a full-on air-powered train horn, which you could hear from about four blocks away. Which I admired, thought for a second about and decided that, even for me, that might be overkill for a race like this.”
Their collection of 73 bells — the last time Carpenter counted — includes ones from the amateur and junior races Robin cut his teeth in, as well as from his big professional outings like the Tour of Utah and the Tour of Switzerland. There’s even a farm-issue cowbell that they picked up in a hardware store in Switzerland, which is around five inches tall, weighs two pounds and can be heard from several blocks away.
“You don’t want to be standing next to him when he’s ringing it,” Heberle said of her husband and the bell.
They do not have a complete collection of Philly bike race bells because they didn’t go down to the starting line when it was in Center City. The earliest Philly bell they have is from 2005.
Around 10 of the bells have a special memory attached to them of key points — successful, challenging or funny — in Robin’s career.
With those special bells set aside on Sunday, Carpenter and Heberle plan to let their party guests borrow the rest when the race starts and the group shifts to the corner of Dexter Street and Lyceum Ave to cheer on the riders. A friend with the Roxborough Development Corporation said they’re also planning to bring a batch of branded bells for people to ring.
“[Robin] does say that the roar of the crowd going up the Manayunk Wall sort of helps lift him up the wall,” Carpenter said “It’s very energizing for the riders. So we want to contribute to that energy.”
