Philadelphia, PA - After winning the Reading Classic on Thursday, if there was still any question that Greg Henderson of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis had recovered from his fractured femur, he proved emphatically to the hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets of Philadelphia - and to the entire cycling world -he was back. With a vengeance.

After nearly 256 kilometers of racing, Henderson still had the legs in the final 150 meters to come screaming up the left side of Benjamin Franklin Parkway through the finishing straight and narrowly overtake Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) to win the Philadelphia International Championship, the final leg of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown. The win gave Health Net Presented by Maxxis consecutive titles in Philadelphia, after winning in 2005 with Chris Wherry.

"I was really hungry to get back on the bike and start racing," Henderson said. He only returned to racing on May 31 at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic and he's been devouring the competition ever since. After winning two stages at Mt. Hood, he headed east and practically stepped off the plane to win the 74-mile Reading Classic, the second leg of the Triple Crown.

But he was unsure if all the training during his recovery would pay off over the course of a race more than twice that distance. But as the race went on, it was apparent that he would be there at the end.

Team effort

It took a concerted effort by the entire team to make sure Henderson was in the front group for the finish. The first tactic that set up the race for Health Net Presented by Maxxis was Mike Jones initiating the only significant and successful break of the day. Two-thirds of the way through the first of 10 large laps, he attacked on the Strawberry Mansion climb, taking David O'Laughlin (Navigators) and Dustin McBurnie (TargetTraining) with him. Minutes later, Chad Hartley (TIAA-CREF) bridged and the quartet set about opening a gap on the peloton, which began to settle down once the break had established itself.

"I wasn't really feeling that great today," Jones said. "I knew I'd be more valuable to the team in a break than trying to do turns at the front in the bunch."

But, as team Director Sportif Jeff Corbett noted, the early break is not an unfamiliar place for Jones. "He's been in that move now three years in a row."

As has been the pattern in recent Philly contests, the break established a large lead, at one point over 10 minutes, before it began to show cracks. The eighth time up the Manyunk Wall, though they still had a 5:30 lead, the break finally came apart, with O'Laughlin going solo.

At that point, CSC massed at the front and not only finished off the break, but most of the peloton as well. Their hard pace coming off the Wall that eighth time shattered the field, and left only a group of 30 on the front. Unfortunately, Jeff Louder was the only representative of Health Net Presented by Maxxis in the front group.

It was a critical moment in the race. Jones came back to the second group and joined Gord Fraser and Kyle Gritters, as well as Kirk O'Bee in getting Henderson and teammates Karl Menzies up to the pointy end of the race. After a few nervous minutes, they were all safely in the front group, which had grown to about 40 riders for the final time up the Wall. By the end of that 10th lap, it was clear that Toyota-United was going to try and keep things together for their sprinters Dominguez and J.J. Haedo over the final three small laps.

The final time around Logan Circle, Toyota-United still had the train set up, but the inevitable swarm started. Henderson had an overly excited lead-out man in Menzies with him. "I had to scream at him to calm down at one point," Henderson recalled. "He kept asking me, 'What do you want me to do?' I just told him to relax. We came out of the roundabout and he put me into perfect position."

After a bit of freelancing, Henderson found a lane along the barriers on the left-hand side of the road - a critical move as it positioned him out of the worst of the wind and allowed him to make up several bike lengths on Dominguez in the final 150 meters.

"When I opened it up I was still about four or five bike lengths back," Henderson said. "It was a drag race with Ivan, and I came up the inside. I didn't even get to a wheel. I saw the line, and I could see everyone around me, and I could see myself catching Ivan slowly but surely. Sprinters know on the line who's won it, and I was lucky enough to get by Ivan today."

He was also very good.

No Crown

Despite winning two legs of the Triple Crown and accumulating 160 points, Henderson wasn't eligible to take home the $10,000 and new Mercury Mariner SUV that went to the rider who accumulated the most points in the three-race series. Unfortunately, he missed the opener in Lancaster, where he won last year as part of the team's unprecedented sweep of what was know as Wachovia Week. Instead, Sergey Lagutin (Navigators), who finished 6th today, took that honor with 108 points, after podium finishes in both Lancaster and Reading.

Henderson refused to speculate as to whether he could've repeated in Lancaster and swept the Triple Crown on his own. "Jeff (Corbett) and I agreed I needed to get in some hard racing, but in a race that didn't have the pressure of something like Lancaster as my first race back," he said. "Originally, I wasn't supposed to come for these races, but I knew I was feeling good so I told Jeff it might be a good idea to bring me out and join the team for Reading and Philly." He was right.