August 9, 2004 – The top ten teams in the Women’s Prestige Cycling Series following the International Tour de ‘Toona are headed for Bermuda for an all-expenses paid stage race on September 23-26. In order to compete for the Bermuda prize, women’s teams were required to participate in the first three Women’s Prestige Cycling Series events, which included the Redlands Bicycle Classic, Nature Valley Grand Prix and the International/Tour de ‘Toona. Each team will receive free travel and housing for four or more riders.
Out of 19 teams that registered at the onset of the Series, the top ten
teams are:

1. Equipe Rona – 1418
2. Quark Cycling Team – 1117
3. Genesis Scuba – 686
4. Webcor Builders – 295
5. Victory Brewing- 294
6. Red 5 Racing – 189
7. Team Basis – 130
8. Team Kenda Tire – 90
9. CRCA/Aquafina – 70
10. Sportsbooks.com – 60

Equipe Rona, with its impressive depth, leads second place Quark Cycling by
300 points. Rona has three riders in the top five overall and the top two
riders in the Best Young Rider competition. But the series is much more
than recognizing the big-budget UCI trade teams. “The series proved to be a
way to get smaller, regional teams involved, and feeling like they had a
stake in something,” explained David LaPorte, race promoter for the Nature
Valley Grand Prix and Women’s Prestige Series organizer.

The goal of the Women’s Prestige Cycling Series is to highlight women’s
racing by giving them a spotlight that they don’t have to share with the
men. The Series grew out of meetings that began in Minnesota last year at
the first Yoplait Women’s Cycling Summit Conference hosted at the Nature
Valley Grand Prix. The summit continued in October at Interbike, with an
overwhelming number of women’s team managers and riders requesting that
promoters develop a race series that included most of the top women’s races.

In each of the Women’s Prestige Series Races, the women’s fields were the
largest ever, noted LaPorte, “Clearly, it’s a sign that if you offer women
racers great racing and a little incentive, they will come.”