Two Races, Two Coasts: Team Aquafina Divides and Conquers

New York City Team Time Trial Championship Win and
Top Finishers in the T-Mobile International in San Francisco


September 13, 2004, New York—What’s a team to do when they’re faced with two important races, but one is in NYC while the other is in San Francisco, and both are on the same weekend? The answer for Team Aquafina: Divide and conquer!

With the prestigious T-Mobile International in San Francisco taking place on September 12, Team Aquafina sent it’s A-Team including Kristen LaSasso, Katie Lambden, Elisa Gagnon, Tina Kunstbeck to the west coast. Guest riders including Pauline Franscone and current New Zealand road race champion Joanne Kiesanowski (AKA the Thunder from Down Under) rounded out the Aquafina squad.

The field of 130 women included all of the major international riders who had competed in the Athens Olympics, including Canadian Lynne Bessette, Manon Jutras and Nicole Cooke from the UK. The course is considered one of the hardest because it takes the riders up both Fillmore and Taylor streets in downtown San Francisco 8 times. With fewer than half the starters finishing, Team Aquafina survived San Fran with three riders—Kiesanowski, Lambden and LaSasso –finishing in the main pack and taking 19th, 45th and 50th overall.

Back in New York City, Tara Parsons, Julie Upton and new triathlete team addition, Rebeccah Wassner competed in the New York team time trial championships. Parsons, Upton and Wasser would not only win the title of Team Time Trial Champions, they also broke the current Central Park women’s team time trial record. The trio posted a time of 44:23 for three laps of Central Park or 30 kilometers.




Upcoming Team Aquafina events include:

September 18: Univest Grand Prix, Sounderton, PA
September 23-26: Bermuda Grand Prix, Bermuda
October 2: NYC Club Team Championships, NY
October 17: Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Kona, HI






Team Aquafina is the only women’s pro-am road cycling and multisport team in the United States. For more information about the team, visit www.nycvelogirls.org. Team Aquafina is part of Think Racing, Inc., a NYC-based nonprofit organization designed to help develop athletes for national and international competition. For more information about Think Racing, Inc., go to www.thinkracing.org.