Tour of California - Women's Criterium

Overflowing & Overjoyed

Santa Rosa, CA (February 18, 2008) – Brooks often carry the literary description of “babbling,” as in “the babbling brook,” but anyone in attendance for the Inaugural Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium would have trouble using that turn-of-phrase for its winner, Brooke Miller (Team TIBCO).

The words “flowing,” “fast,” and even “dominating” come to mind when describing this Brooke who originally hails from Huntington Beach, CA. Upon commenting to her teammate, Amber Rais, that “Brooke is really on fire this year,” [making reference to Brooke’s win in the Cherry Pie criterium two weeks prior] Amber replied “Brooke’s ALWAYS on fire.” After this historic victory, it is hard to argue the point.

An aggressive Team Vanderkitten seized the race immediately. With the objective of claiming primes and looking to get into any breaks, various members of the first year team based out of Berkeley, CA could be found consistently at or near the head of the race.

At a little over the halfway point, it looked as if a break of three might get clear, but the presence of Cheerwine’s Laura Van Gilder in that break perhaps made it doomed from the start. The break, however, served as a harbinger for the finish with a rider from Cheerwine, Team TIBCO and Team High Road all in the mix.


With approximately three [laps] to go, Kelly Benjamin and the rest of the Cheerwine train began to organize upfront. The tactic that had proven so successful in delivering Van Gilder last year came apart over the last lap and a half.

With no true organization at the front, Brooke Miller jumped at the line, followed closely by Van Gilder, and Team High Road’s Emilia Fahlin. In the end, the rider whose distinctive pigtails once made her one of the most easily recognizable in the women’s peloton pulled away from the field.


Having captured 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, Brooke Miller can now add the golden fleece of the Amgen Tour of California to her palmares.


For a team that was truly racing together for the first time, once Team TIBCO "works out the kinks" and the riders "learn each other" this Brooke may well be overflowing in the near future.

Photos: Leonard Basobas