Women's Prestige Cycling Series accepting team registrations

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The Women's Prestige Cycling Series, the only national-level competition produced by women for women, is accepting entry registrations. The series consists of four races around the US from March through mid-July.

"We set out to create a focused series that women's teams could build their seasons around," said Women's Prestige Cycling Series co-founder Giana Roberge, Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 sports director. "The National Racing Calendar just had too many events and had became a competition about who had the biggest travel budget. We wanted a series all women's teams could equally take ownership of while levelling the playing field."

The four races are Redlands Bicycle Classic in California (March 30-April 3), the SRAM Tour of the Gila in New Mexico (April 27-May 1), the Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota (June 15-19) and the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic (July 19-24) in Oregon. All four races are part of USA Cycling's National Racing Calendar (NRC).

"Having a women's-only series does a great deal to enhance the sport, and get it out a bit from the shadow of the men's side of the sport," said TIBCO-To The Top manager and DS Lisa Hunt. "I think you can see that effect in the improvement in quality of the racing here in the U.S. Just look at the recent success of U.S. women on the road in some of the biggest races internationally and you can see how the WPCS has contributed to that growth in talent, and in the talent pool."

The Series offers four separate competitions: top overall individual, best young rider, best sprinter and top team. Special jerseys, provided by Champion System, will identify the leaders in the first three classifications.

Defending champions are Mara Abbott (top individual and best young rider) and Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 (best team). The late Carla Swart won the best sprinter competition last year.

The Series is open only to teams, but individual riders can either form a team or join one that will be participating. More information and the rules are available at www.WomenCyclists.com. Registration deadline is March 29.