ICC Announces America's Dairyland Women's Challenge & Nicole Sprint Series

07/01/04

The 2004 Edition of the International Cycling Classic Women's events will feature a daily leaders jersey and a new sprint series for the cat 1/2/3 women and category 3/4 women. The custom leaders jersey will be awarded daily to the woman with the most points in the series and is underwritten by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB).

The Nicole Sprint Series for category 1/2/3 women is underwritten by WMMB and the Nicole Reinhart Memorial Fund Inc. Sprint points will be contested at six criterium events and a jersey awarded to the sprint leader after each criterium. In addition to the leader and sprint leader jerseys, WMMB and Nicole Fund will provide a seperate purse for the top three women in the overall and the sprint contests. A leaders jersey will also be awarded in the category 3/4 women's events.

Rebecca Anderson, director of the America's Dairyland Team and staff of the Nicole Fund worked with WMMB and the Nicole Fund to arrange funding for the jerseys and overall prize money. "The sponsors and I felt that the women's event at Superweek would be a great place to promote the nutritional value of dairy products. Milk is a great sports drink and Superweek is a long-standing event in Wisconsin so it wasn't a stretch to connect the two," said Anderson.

In addition to the women's series, there will be special primes at selected mens events during the superweek run. "WMMB and the Nicole Fund want to provide enhancements to both the men and women's events at Superweek," noted Anderson. "Otto Wenz was very supportive of this initiative and even upped the prize list for women after we worked out the partnership details so I hope the riders will take up the challenge from here and make the 2004 edition of Superweek the best yet."