PHILADELPHIA (June 7, 2009) – In a turn of the table, the women racing in the 16th annual Liberty Classic passed the men racing the TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship, showing just how fast and hard the women were racing their four laps of the grueling course up the Manayunk Wall. But in the end, it was a similar story with a large field sprint, easily won by Germany's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg of Team Columbia-Highroad.

"The main thing was to keep it fast so that nobody could attack," Teutenberg said about the race strategy. "Allison Powers (Team Type 1) went for solo attack because she doesn't have a sprint, which was great for me -- I caught her and then kept going. It was perfect teamwork -- my girls were like motorbikes in front of me for the last 15 kilometers!"

In the field sprint, Teutenberg had a significant gap on the rest of the sprinters, enough to sit up and put her arms in the air to celebrate the win, her third here in Philadelphia. 

Coming in second was Joanne Kiesenowski (Team TIBCO). "Columbia really had it strung out on the climbs," she said. "I was waiting for my team to come back but they didn't, so it was up to me to pull a result for the team. I was able to find Ina's wheel coming up to the sprint, but she is too strong to come around."

Kiesanowski said that while the speed was high, the course always makes this race difficult. "This is always a hard race. But it was so much fun on Manayunk, especially on the last lap. There were so many people out there cheering us on." 

Finishing third was Shelley Olds (PROMAN Hit Squad).

Starting more than ten minutes behind the men's race the women set off to complete their four laps of the course. With a high speed set from the gun, breakaways were hard to come by. Rachel Warner (Salamander Racing) was able to escape the field but only by herself, which always proves to be a tough challenge. Columbia-High Road kept the pace high over the climb, shedding slower riders out of the field. 

As the laps wore on, breakaways were caught and the amount of fans increased on 'The Wall,' cheering on the riders. Starting the final lap for the women, the rear-end of the men's race was only 45 seconds ahead of the lead of the women's race. With the men still facing more than 100 miles of racing the pace was rather slow compared to the women, so the race officials neutralized the men's field so that the women could pass by without hindrance. This was the first time in the 16-year history of the women's race that this has happened. The men's field moved to the right of the road and actually cheered on the remaining women, who were too busy getting into position for the critical final climb of "The Wall.'

As a race within a race, points were given to the top three riders over "The Wall" each lap, with Ruth Corset taking the most points in a very competitive race. As well, a separate award was given to the best placed young American rider (under 23,) going to Amy Dombrowski (Webcor).