Photo Stephanie Gutowski

SANTA ROSA, CALIF., – Premiering during Stage 1 of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California, the Women’s Criterium presented by the Redwood Regional Breast Center was enthusiastically welcomed by the thousands of fans lining the streets of Santa Rosa. Brooke Miller from Tibco won the inaugural race with an impressive performance.

The newest addition to the National Racing Calendar (NRC), the Women’s Criterium used portions of the Stage 1 men’s finishing circuit in Santa Rosa for the course. As a new component to the 2008 Amgen Tour of California professional road cycling race, the Women’s Criterium consisted of a field of 85 riders competing for more than $10,000 in prizes. Set as a category Pro 1,2 race and with a limit of eight riders per team, the Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium showcased some of the world’s top professional women’s cycling teams.

“The inaugural Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium was an absolute success,” said Laura Charameda, race director, Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium. “The response from the crowd and racers was extremely high in both the quality of the women’s racing and the excitement generated by it. I look forward to the women not only returning next year, but to multiple locations along the route.”

Photo by Stephanie Gutowski

Brooke Miller, overall winner of the Women’s Criterium, has earned ten top-10 international finishes in her first season participating in the European races, stunning the field with a win at the Tour of Ardeche in France, and becoming the first U.S. woman to win a sprint jersey in Europe at the Novilon Internationale Damesronde van Drenthe in Holland. In addition to her successes abroad, Miller earned seven wins racing on home soil in the U.S., including a win at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, Cougar Mountain.

“This was a really huge win for me because it was a really great field,” said Brooke Miller (Tibco), winner of the inaugural Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium. “It was really a thrill to be able to show how exciting women’s racing is; we hope the crowds saw that. The racing was aggressive, fast and exciting.”
America’s most successful cycling race, the Amgen Tour of California, is an eight-day “rolling festival” through California that has in its first two years already become one of the nation’s largest and most recognized annual sports events. This international, world-class cycling road race features 17 elite professional teams and athletes from around the world, competing for the highest prize purse of any cycling race in North America. The Amgen Tour of California brings the drama and excitement of a professional cycling stage race to the California coast for a third year in 2008, from Feb. 17-24.

“The Criterium here was a first for the Amgen Tour of California,” said Andrew Messick, president, AEG Sports, presenter of the race. “There are a lot of us who are passionate about cycling, and we think it’s well past time that these women are recognized for their racing and sacrifices. Our company believes in cycling, and to be able to help push to get women’s cycling the exposure it deserves is something we believe in.”