Organizers of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling have announced the 20 professional women’s teams that will contest a three-race battle in southeastern Pennsylvania in early June. At stake is a $34,000 prize purse that includes $5000 for the overall series winner.

Battling for the big payday will be a talented field of six-rider squads that includes three of Europe’s top teams, plus the cream of the crop from this side of the Atlantic. As usual the marquee event of the series will be June 8’s Liberty Classic, which is celebrating its 15th running on the historic streets of downtown Philadelphia.

The overwhelming favorite to capture Liberty gold will be defending champion and two-time winner Ina-Yoko Teutenberg. The German sprinting sensation is on fine form once again, already taking an impressive third at the season opening World Cup in Geelong, Australia. Teutenberg will be backed by the powerful Team High Road squad, sister outfit to the dominant men’s team and No. 1 in the most recent World Cup rankings.

“Ina will definitely be our plan A,” confirmed Kristy Scrymgeour, High Road’s communications manager. “Our main concern is making sure no one gets away on the last trip up Lemon Hill. If we can keep the race together Ina will be hard to beat in a sprint.”

High Road also boasts American stars Mara Abbott and Kim Anderson. A year ago, the 22-year-old Abbott was the revelation of pro peloton, winning a stage of the Redlands Classic, the national road race championship, and scoring a silver at the Montreal World Cup. All that happened while she was still devoting time to swimming and college. This year, the young American is fully focused on cycling, with her eyes trained on the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The biggest threat to High Road will be Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung, and its own fast finisher, Deutschland native Regina Schleicher. Schleicher was world champion on the road in 2005 and won the Liberty Classic a year later. Nürnberger was second in the most recent World Cup standings.

Swiss-based Cervelo-Lifeforce are the newcomers to the Liberty Classic, but that doesn’t mean they’re coming only for the experience. Led by 2006 world time trial champion Kristin Armstrong, Cervelo-Lifeforce has the best chance of derailing another German blitzkrieg.

Since 1996, only two non-Germans have won this prestigious women’s event, the last coming in 2003 when Canadian Lyne Bessette snuck away during the final climb of Lemon Hill and held her advantage all the way to the finish. Armstrong, a non-sprinter who was second in this year’s Tour of Flanders, will need a similar scenario to unfold if she’s to become the first American to win the Liberty Classic.

Webcor Builders could also make some noise during the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling. The California-based team started 2008 with a bang when team rider Katheryn Mattis scored a breakthrough win at the Geelong World Cup in late February. That victory celebration was muted a week later when Mattis broke her collarbone after crashing at the Tour of New Zealand. Nonetheless, Webcor’s international aspirations remain. The 2007 National Racing Calendar team champion spent much of its spring campaign in Europe, helping team leader – and rheumatology doctor – Christine Thorburn pursue a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

But come Triple Crown time, the team’s hopes will lie with Canadian Alex Wrubleski who is in the midst of a career year. Already in 2008 Wrubleski has scored a pair of top 4s in World Cup events, and in April she grabbed the top step of the Redlands Classic stage race podium after taking enough bonus time in the final stage to steal the overall title away from High Road’s Abbott.

Other teams to watch include Colavita-Sutter Home, which is led by Tina Pic, one of the sport’s most decorated pros. During her lengthy career, Pic has won multiple U.S. national criterium championships and National Racing Calendar titles. This year Pic has gotten a boost from rising Aussie star Tiffany Cromwell, who won the overall titles at the Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix and the Sea Otter Classic Road Race.

Also keep an eye on Team Tibco, which scored the top podium step at the inaugural Tour of California criterium earlier in the year when Brooke Miller out-kicked Cheerwine speedster Laura Van Gilder.

The women’s three-race series commences June 3rd in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with the first of two Commerce Bank Triple Crown pro women criteriums. The second 25-mile crit will take place two days later in Reading. Following a pair of rest days, the race caravan will relocate to Philadelphia for the 56.7-mile Liberty Classic, which is run on the same circuit as the men’s Philadelphia International Championship. In both cases racing begins and ends on Philadelphia’s famed Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

In between, the world’s fastest women cyclists will scratch and claw their way around four laps of the grueling 14.4-mile circuit that includes the infamous Manayunk Wall, which boasts precipitous grades in excess of 17 percent. Expect another furious dash to the finish and perhaps the first American winner in the race’s long and illustrious history.

Professional Women’s Teams for 2008 Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling

Team High Road - Women
Cervelo Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team
Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung
Webcor Builders Cycling Team
Women's Professional/Elite Teams
Aaron's Women's Professional Cycling Team
BMW-Bianchi
C3-Sollay.com
Cheerwine Cycling
Colavita/Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light
HPC Powered by Altarum
Hub Racing
Jazz Apple Cycling Team
Juice Plus+ Women's Cycling Team
PROMAN Racing
Team Advil/Chapstick
Team Kenda Tire
Team Tibco
ValueAct Capital Cycling Team
Vanderkitten Racing