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Photo by Phil Marques
Kristin Armstrong - 2006 Tour De Toona

History of the Tour De Toona

This is the first complete record of the women's Tour De Toona on the internet. I would like to give special thanks to Alfred North and some excepts from Karl King, plus the Altoona Library. Also special thanks to a friend who contributed to this article and lives locally in the Altoona area. Without his help, this article would not of been possible.

The Tour De Toona started around 1987, with non-sanctioned events in 87, 88, 89 including mixed men's and women's fields. The winners were picked from the overall finish. The Altoona Mirror, a local paper in Altoona had an article in it's archive about the early days of the race. In the newspapers supplements, it shows that the men's race began in 1987 but no women's race was held until 1989. The 1987 and 88 races were called Intown Criteriums, with two races each year, a long race and a short race held over the same one mile criterium course used today, although the race direction was reversed. The two-day race in 1989 incorporated a Saturday road race and was the first to be called the Tour de Toona. The Intown Criteriums were three quarters of a mile long with a 40-lap long race and a 15-lap short race. First prizes awarded at Toona were $100. Since that time, prizes for the race have reached nearly $60,000 dollars, making it the richest purse in the world for professional women today.

The Altoona Mirror had a few quotes from the long race champ Greg Yoder (now considered the first Tour de Toona champion), on how the race played out. There is a picture with Greg Yoder and some of the top finishers including Sarah Costanzo, the first women to win Toona. The 1987-88 winners were not listed as offical winners because they raced under the name of the Intown Criterium. There were 2nd and 3rd place women finishers in 1987-88, but there are no records that exist both in the Altoona Library or in the Offical Toona Archives. The print media of that time, didn't reveal who they might be. Sarah Costanzo and Kathy Steel were both members of the Altoona Bicycle Club, but there was no official team. Both women still ride and live in the Altoona area today.

Sarah Costanzo was a solid looking rider, although not quite as professional as todays top women, she was 1st for women in a mixed field. There were only 21 riders in the long race event and it seems that Sarah was the only female in that field. We don't know for sure, because there doesn't seem to be any extensive records on this. The caption on the article says "full marks for John Hartsock". In 1988 with even less coverage, there is a couple of paragraphs under "Sports at a Glance" about the Second Annual Intown Criterium. The course is the same length and has the same short race and long race. They list the overall winner from the long race, Gunter Shrogen who was in the same age group of male winners from the short race, plus Kathy Steel, for the women.

Kathy Steel is the widow of Ken Steel, a local legendary recreational cyclist who won the first organized unsanctioned bike race in Altoona, the 1975 Horseshoe Curve Bicycle Race. He died in January 1987, working as a firefighter, when a building collapsed on him. Ken Steel was a guy who thought 150 miles was just a nice Saturday ride. When he was discharged from the Army, he cycled back home to Altoona from San Francisco rather than buy a bus ticket. When his seat broke 60 miles from home, he pedaled standing up rather than phone for a ride. Ken always chose the most mountainous route he could find riding in the Altoona area, which provides no shortage of mountainous terrain.

Sarah Costanzo and Kathy Steel have been included in this list of race winners for historical purposes. Now exactly when Toona started is somewhat ambiguous, even though there was a 20 year anniversary. Rick Geist, promoter of the Tour De Toona, once said there were also races in 1985, 86, but they weren't sanctioned so they aren't considered official Tours of Toona. Exactly how they differed from the Horseshoe Curve race which began in 1975 is not known. The 1987-88 races were called the InTown Criterium, and were apparently run on a course similar to that used for the Sunday criterium now, but a bit shorter. 1989 marked the first year it was a stage race with a women's field and Susan DiBiase won a Saturday stage from Hollidaysburg to Altoona, plus the Sunday criterium. 1989 was also the first year the name "Tour de Toona" was used but officially the 1987 race is now considered the 1st Tour de Toona.

In the 1987 article, there was no mention of any women in the article itself, just the caption of the article's only photograph which included Sarah Costanzo. The 1988 article was even more brief and had no photograph. The last paragraph said "A short race covering an 11.25-mile course", also was held with riders competing in five categories with Kathy Steel listed as the female winner. There may have been no more then three females competing in either year so maybe that's why the official women's results don't begin until 1989.

The Altoona Bicycle club was formed in the winter of 1986 following a fund-raising ride Rick Geist sponsored from Altoona to Harrisburg in the summer of 1986. The first Criterium followed the next summer. There was a Horseshoe Curve race sponsored by another area bicycle club that ran from 1975 to 1985 prior to the Intown Criterium. The Altoona Bicycle Club held two or three Ken Steel Memorial Horseshoe Curve Classics beginning in 1987, 88. They were discontinued after the Tour de Toona became more complex.

The Tour de Toona was first sanctioned by the USCF in 1990. It was opened at that time to men and women, Cat 1 through 4 as well as citizens. In 1990, women's events had shorter distances then the men, and this led to public criticism which prompted people to wrote letters to the editors. The decision was made to equalize both the distance and the purse in 1991 for both men and women. In the spring of 1992, Altoona staged the U.S. Olympic Road Trials. (Video Clip) The success of the Tour de Toona led the Altoona Bicycle Club to pursue having the 1992 U.S. Olympic Road Trials held in Altoona Pennsylvania.

The USCF, who noticed the Tour de Toona as an upstart bike club ignored it's rules and awarded the 1992 Olympic Trials to Altoona Pennsylvania, rejecting larger cities like Portland, Salt Lake City and Cleveland. In the summer of 1992, the cream of American cyclists including Lance Armstrong and Jeanne Golay, raced through the streets of Altoona in preparation for the Barcelona games. The Olympic Trials required support from the entire community, but strained the resources of the Altoona Bicycle Club. Following the Olympic Trials, the 1992 Tour de Toona was scaled back, marking the only time the race failed to grow from one year to the next. Today the Tour De Toona sports a budget of nearly one million dollars and prizes topping out around $60,000 dollars, an incredible amount for women's purses today.

In one of the early years, a local jeweler put up Rolex watches for the women winners, which the winner of the women's race crossed the finish line with arms raised and pointing to her wrist where the Rolex would go! The long battle among some of the finest cyclists in the world began 19 years ago when local businessman Gerry Hymes thought about what could be done to draw people to downtown Altoona in the sweltering days of summer. With beautiful country roads, and pristine Amish farmland, Toona was an ideal area to hold a stage race with both flat criteriums and steep mountainous climbs like the Blue Knob.

The suggestion came from then City Councilman Karl King to hold a bicycle race which was influenced by the fact that both he and Hymes were avid recreational cyclists, and the question was posed in a local bicycle shop one day. Hymes offered to put up a first prize of $100 and the fledgling Altoona Bicycle Club agreed to stage the one day Intown Criterium. State Representative Rick Geist, a charter member of the bike club asked Mercy Hospital to help sponsor the event and the total purse swelled to $350. As the promoter of the Tour de Toona, raising money to cover the million dollar budget of the race is a role Geist still fills today, in what are increasing harder and leaner times. While other races have floundered by cutting back and reducing the number of stages every year, Toona is one of the rare exceptions, and it continues to thrive as the longest and hardest bike race for women in the world.

The first Intown Criterium in 1987 drew a field of about 75 riders, enough for the anxious organizers to declare it a success. The following year, the purse remained the same, but the number of riders more than doubled. The Altoona Bicycle Club's members who had lots of experience in staging races went looking for a bigger challenge with the 1989 race, a two-day event, incorporating a Saturday road race and the Sunday criterium. Adding the road race meant the name of the event would have to be changed, and the Tour de Toona was born. Representative Rick Geist kept soliciting sponsors and the purse for the first Tour de Toona reached $5,000. The relatively large prize list for an amateur event drew over 200 cyclists, which many were licensed by the U.S. Cycling Federation.

Since the Tour de Toona wasn't sanctioned by the USCF and licensed riders were prohibited from riding in citizen races, a dozen of those racers had their licenses suspended. That winter, the Altoona Bicycle Club faced a problem with either seeking sanctioning from the USCF and expand the Tour de Toona, or continue to hold non-sanctioned events that would have to be limited in scope. The club decided to join the USCF and the 1990 Tour de Toona was its first sanctioned event. Over 700 riders from both men and women participated over three days that year. An individual time trial had been added for a purse of more than $15,000.

In 1989, the club learned about playing by the (USCF) rules, and in 1990 they learned about gender equality, due to protests and written letters to the editors. The lion's share of the purse that year was going to the men since the women's field was far smaller in numbers and their courses were less physically demanding. The racers seemed to accept this standard as the way things were until the public became outraged! Women, they thought, should be competing for the same prize list as men! The public outcry forced organizers to take a hard look at their practices and the decision was made to equal both the prize money and the distances! This standard still remains firm at Toona till this very day!

Lessons learned from this resulted in the 1991 Tour de Toona drawing the largest women's field in the country, racing for an equal portion of a prize list that had grown to nearly $60,000 today! Riders from all 50 states and 20 foreign countries helped make the Tour de Toona the premier women's cycling event in the United States. The Tour De Toona has become the longest and hardest women's stage race in the world today! Over the years, venues including State College, Johnstown and even Pittsburgh have hosted the Tour de Toona. Courses have included punishing climbs like Blue Knob, hair-raising descents, patches of dirt lanes and beautiful country roads where the Mennonite and Amish can be seen working in unison building barns, sporting traditional suspenders and overalls, while women tend to cooking the massive meals for the families.

That's the brief History of the Tour De Toona. Toona was officially the richest race for women in the world during 2007 with $57,880 in prize money for the women alone. The race budget was over $1 million dollars, more than the Grande Boucle, Giro De Feminin and the Thuringen Rundfahrt combined. Cyclingnews pays two people to go to Toona for race reports and photos, and the women received the only video TV coverage of the race in 2007. Women enjoyed 4 star accommodations at the Hampton Inn with Wireless Broadband Internet access, Free Breakfast, Air Conditioning with an indoor swimming pool.

Toona women's race was on Comcast Sports Network, satellite and cable providers nationwide with 4 hours on Comcast Sports Network, attentively to have 1-2 hours nationally on Versus and all 7 stages on cycling.tv. Also Toona was to be broadcast on WCSN. Toona supported two moto crews for video and a helicopter overhead for some great footage. Lyne Bessette made her racing comeback with the Quebec Provincial Team, and some great footage of Kristin Armstrong and Mara Abbott going head to head was cut into the Toona Promo for 2008. You can view the Promo at the link below.

Toona Promo Video!

Since the Tour De Toona doesn't pay UCI fees, it can focus the money on prizes for the women, making it the richest purse in the world in major international women's stage races. In the past riders like Pia Sunstedt, Marina Jaunatre and Magali Le Floc'h have made the trip from abroad making Toona a truly international race, and Canada's top riders have made the trip down south to enrich the event as well. Toona expects to continue it's status as the biggest, richest stage race in the world for women for some time into the foreseeable future, so we invite all the Canadians to return as well as the Europeans. Come on over, get your hot dogs, chips and Pepsi, have a front row seat, and enjoy women's cycling at its best!