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Cody the Roadie: The Cody Stevenson diary 2008
Former Team Cyclingnews.com rider Cody Stevenson heads back stateside for a second season with a clutch of other Aussies on the Jittery Joe's Continental team based in Athens, Georgia.
Follow Cody's adventures from his Southern California base to cities across the USA, and his impressions of the land of the Big Gulp, the Whopper and opportunity.
June 14, 2008
Philly week
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Keith Urban playing in the background, enough Cowboy hats and boots to scare away a score of cattle and the sweet, sweet smell of chewing tobacco....ahh, I must be in Nashville airport!
I am at the airport with a two-hour layover before my final flight to San Diego. I have raced my bike, crossed three states in a Van, (oh, how I miss the Van trips?!), and am in the process of a return diagonal crossing of the US. I have gone from not being able to ride out of a wet paper bag at CSC Invitational to sticking it with the front group up Manayunk 10 times, became a year older, had a blast, and all this in the space of a week!
The best week of one day races in the US. Philly week. Triple Crown.
I wasn't very good at the start of the week, due to my problems with allergies, (yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses!) but by the end of the week I had made the front group at Philly after 250k. I would have liked to have a sprint, but with 200m to go my legs had other ideas. I stood up, and then sat back down, apparently I had cramps. Funny that. I rounded out 20th. Not bad, not great. But seriously, I was happy to be there. With Willo out with his broken wrist, Neil crashing on his way down from Manayunk and getting 10 stitches in his shin, OUCH!, I guess it was just my day to have a crack and make the front group. It paid off, but now I have to get into the mindset of the responsibility of being able to finish it off a little better.
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It's a bit of a change from getting bottles, to be the one receiving them. A huge thank you to every rider on the team for giving me a hand, going with breakaways, giving themselves heat stroke and in Ben Kneller's case getting in the early break AND giving himself heat stroke, and to all for supplying me the 40 odd bottles I drank or tipped over my head! I would also like to NOT thank the dude who (accidentally) knocked the bottle out of our soigneur, Jen's, hand at the very last feed of the day... I really didn't need that last bottle in the last 15k of the hottest race ever! I know that it was an accident, but I just couldn't believe it when I saw the bidon topple to the ground a metre away from me. Such is life.
The boys headed off to Beauce straight after the race on Sunday, so I am traveling home on my Pat Malone. I am heading up to Reno, Nevada for the Tour de Nez next week and from what I have heard it is a gnarly week of circuit races and a really social event. I'm looking forward to it!
Arriving back in San Diego to cooler temps and dryer air, I required a bit of R&R yesterday, so after a nice easy recovery ride and coffee stop I headed out into the mountains on a bike just a little bit faster than my everyday work steed. I had been out about a month earlier with my friend John Arnold, and yesterday was a perfect day to head out east and clear my head.
Now I am back to it, getting some quality training in before Nez. The circuit races should require a fair dose of leg speed; I dare say I have enough k's in the legs, so I will be doing a bit of sprint training in light of the upcoming races.
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This time at home will give me a chance to catch up (on the phone at least) with my family, my sister just had another baby so I am Uncle Cody mark 2, or UnCo as my nephew calls me... ahh kids!
I must take this opportunity to thank Dr. Michael Ross from bikedoctraining for helping me out in Philly with my allergies, and also to his family for putting on the traditional pre race feed for the Aarons Women's team and the Jittery Joe's team at their home the night before Philly!
Cheers,
Cody
