Field At Reading Will Include NRC's No. 1 Team

Toyota-United, the No. 1-ranked professional bicycle racing team in the National Race Calendar standings, is among more than a dozen squads that will participate in the Commerce Bank Reading Classic on Thursday.

Toyota-United’s roster includes Australian Henk Vogels, a veteran of several Tours de France, as well as Serbian national champion Ivan Stevic, who finished second Saturday at the CSC Invitational in Arlington, Va.

More than 140 racers will compete in the race Thursday over a 75-mile, 11-lap circuit course that winds its way through the streets of Reading. On the final three laps, the course diverts the cyclists up the challenging Mt. Penn climb.

“The race organizers have made the race much tougher this year by making us climb Mt. Penn two more times than last year,” Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said. “That climb seemed to be the decisive factor in the race, so I would expect it will figure prominently again this time.”

Reading is the second stop of The Commerce Bank Triple Crown Series. On Sunday, Bernhard Eisel of the German T-Mobile squad won a rain-soaked, 85-mile race in Lancaster, Penn. The series concludes on Sunday with the Philadelphia International Championship, a grueling 156-mile race that is widely considered the single-most important bicycle race in North America.