Photo ©: Shane Goss

Cody the Roady: The Cody Stevenson diary 2006

After two years in Belgium with Team Cyclingnews.com, Cody Stevenson has returned to his homeland to ride for the brand new Australian outfit, FRF Couriers-Caravello.

Follow Cody's adventures with his new squad as he makes the best use of his European garnered skills to make an impact on the domestic circuit.

• Index to all entries

January 18, 2006

Australian Open Championships: Congratulations and frustrations

On one hand it wasn't so bad, the form followed and the team had good results. On the other hand, the race was frustrating for me.

I am talking about the Australian Championship held last weekend. The team had a good day, placing Peter McDonald and Tony in the front group and Peter Herzig and Brendan Brooks in the second group. Peter M finished a great 7th and Tony was 11th. Good results for a newly formed team!

My race was a little disappointing...actually it was more than a LITTLE disappointing.

After arriving in Adelaide on Friday morning with a few of my teammates, we headed off to Hahndorf were the whole team was staying. Some of the guys had come down earlier to participate in the TT. It was good for everyone to get together the day before the race, have a meal together, even if Brendan Brooks did eat Dominic's food, (best off not to eat the manager's dinner!) and get to know each other. Unfortunately, Big Troy Glennan was back at home in Sydney after having a reaction to a bee sting. I hope you are feeling better soon big guy!

The morning of the race we were all geed for our first big road race and I am sure each rider in the FRF Couriers/Caravello team was keen to do their best to get a good result for the team. The crash in the first five km put paid to some of our best intentions. This crash left some of the riders chasing, some with bike problems, and others with general chaos.

I managed to avoid the crash, as did Tony, and we both got in the early break, after we had been trying to get into every move. Unfortunately, it didn't stick. This break was brought back and a group of three went off the front. The next move that went, contained Peter and Tony. I was on the wrong side of the road and missed the move. This move stuck...Doh!!!!

The reaction from the likes of Simon Gerrans, Mark Renshaw, Robbie McEwen, Ben Brooks, Glen Chadwick and my old team mate Cam Jennings came soon after and I tried in vain to be in as many moves as possible to bridge across to the front. Again it came to no avail as the whole peloton seemed determined to chase back up to any guy on a pro team and then just sit in their wheel. How frustrating. Guys like Cookie, Gerrans and McEwen were all thwarted in attempts to make the race positive and aggressive. Of course a group did eventually get away, I was not in it...frustrating.

75km - Game Over! With 100km to go the main peloton seemed content to just ride around whilst the 25 riders who were up the road got to race! Frustrating! But what can you do? The Australian Championship, or any Championship race that is a one day affair always has a strange element to it.

So unfortunately I really didn't have a great day, but it wasn't through a lack of trying. I am sure there are 100 other stories like mine for the day. All the riders in the team rode well and gave themselves an indication of where they are at with training and preparation for the season. Good positive solid indications which will trickle down into a good solid positive team.

It was great to see two of my teammates up there in the front group, bashing away on the last lap, right up front with the best.

After the race I rode back to Hahndorf, I reflected on my day and tried to turn myself around a little and get out of my "angry little elf" persona. We all had a great meal together that night, had a bit of a chat about the race, but mostly we just talked rubbish...which is sometimes the best thing to do after a race!

All in all, it was a good team effort over the weekend. Each rider did what they could and I am sure if we build on this we will have a strong season together and success will come.

The team will be gunning for our next race, the Joseph Sunde Memorial, at Heffron Park on Australia Day. After that it will be back to the hard k's for all riders in readiness for selection to South Africa for Giro del Capo.

I will have some new nicknames of my team mates in my coming diary so stay tuned,

Cody

Results