python performance...am I missing something?

The background for the specific test case is here: https://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/Python/Q_27781765.html.  

I ran some benchmarks to find the best performer among several methods, and was getting back some astounding results.  Running the same code in PHP yields much better performance.  I've previously read that PHP-vs-Python is a bit of a mixed bag, with Python performing better in data handling, and PHP performing better with I/O.  These results are showing quite a different picture, and the Python code is not even executing the type conversion.  Can anyone point out where I've gone wrong?

For Python:

$> python
Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Sep 12 2011, 14:03:14)
[GCC 4.4.5 20110214 (Red Hat 4.4.5-6)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import time
>>> def tryit():
...   tin=time.time()
...   a="97757589545391667"
...   for x in range(1,10000001):
...     try:
...       b=a
...     except:
...       pass
...   tout=time.time()
...   print tout-tin
...
>>> tryit()
1.29326200485
>>> tryit()
0.987454891205
>>> tryit()
0.976771116257
>>> tryit()
0.977509975433
>>> tryit()
1.36146092415

For PHP:

$> php -v
PHP 5.3.3 (cli) (built: May  3 2012 17:33:17)
Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies


$> php -r '$in=microtime();$a = "97757589545391667";for ($x=0;$x++;$x<10000001) { $b=(int)$a;} $out=microtime();echo number_format($out-$in,8);'
0.00006000

$> php -r '$in=microtime();$a = "97757589545391667";for ($x=0;$x++;$x<10000001) { $b=(int)$a;} $out=microtime();echo number_format($out-$in,8);'
0.00006700

$> php -r '$in=microtime();$a = "97757589545391667";for ($x=0;$x++;$x<10000001) { $b=(int)$a;} $out=microtime();echo number_format($out-$in,8);'
0.00008900

$> php -r '$in=microtime();$a = "97757589545391667";for ($x=0;$x++;$x<10000001) { $b=(int)$a;} $out=microtime();echo number_format($out-$in,8);'
0.00006000

$> php -r '$in=microtime();$a = "97757589545391667";for ($x=0;$x++;$x<10000001) { $b=(int)$a;} $out=microtime();echo number_format($out-$in,8);'
0.00005900

$> php -r '$in=microtime();$a = "97757589545391667";for ($x=0;$x++;$x<10000001) { $b=(int)$a;} $out=microtime();echo number_format($out-$in,8);'
0.00006000