Minute Maid/Dasani-La Grange Elite Teams Wrap Season With Big Results
By Casper Casparian

Photo by Jim Safford

Secret recipe for results?

The elite squads of the Minute Maid/Dasani-La Grange racing team have finished their 2003 campaigns with authority, taking three California State championships and numerous top-10 finishes against the top national and international talent in competitions across the U.S.

September got off to a sizzling start as Minute Maiden Laura Downey took second place in the first-ever U.S. $10K/10K Women's Cycling Sprint, held in Marietta, Georgia. (Maiden Carla Kohler has suggested that the 6-mile event be called the "Race to the Chicken.") The tightly knit and organized Minute Maidens continued their string of success throughout the month with a 6th place at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, 6th again at the San Rafael Classic and 9th at the T-Mobile International in San Francisco, arguably the toughest and biggest race on the U.S. national calendar.

The La Grange race squads dominated the California State time trial championships, as well, winning the team time trial and men's and women's individual time trial events. The team of Josh Horowitz, Stu Press, Geoff Rapoport and Alex Smith took the gold medal (and nearly broke the course record) at the State Championship event in San Diego. Three weeks later, first-year team member Geoff Rapoport trounced all comers with a victory in the individual time trial event on the same course; Josh Horowitz returned to take sixth. Minute Maiden Julia Whiteside motored faster than any woman in California to take home her gold medal.