Latest Cody Stevenson CT Blog

It has been awhile... Apologies.There is a reason for this, amongst a whole heap of training, the Philadelphia Invitational, a 250km beast of a race, with 10 arduous ascents of the famed "wall" in Manayunk (won by an Aussie, Matt Goss!) a bit of the usual mid season ups and downs, and a podium result in the GC from the Tour de Nez, I have only just gotten around to putting pen to paper...or should that be finger tips to keypad?

Philly, it's my favourite race of the entire season.  It's a great race, the best one day race in the US, and for a small team like mine, Adageo Energy, it is the biggest race we do all year.  It also falls on or near my birthday every year, so there is added motivation for me.  It is 250km, and we do a circuit that takes in the Wall, a 17% 700m climb, 10 times.... by the 9th time up it's generally split to pieces and this year was no different.  I managed to make the front group of 32 guys, but my seated sprint (due to the odd cramp) didn't muster much of a result at the finish.  18th at the end of 250km and over 6 hours of racing.... You feel like death warmed up after the race, but not 1 hour later you are talking about coming back next year, and for me it is the absolute highlight of the year.  It's the one, special race, the one that keeps you on your bike, day after day.... for the big stars, it's Le Tour. For me, it's Philly.

Post Philly, is a strange time... it's kind of like limbo, you don't know what's left or right for a day or two.  Then you are snapped back to reality as you have to pack the bags again and head to another race, for me it was Tour de Nez.  I managed 3rd on GC, 2nd on stage 2 and 4th on stage 3.  I was pretty pleased with the result.  It has been very hard this year, we have had our fair share of ups and downs, and not a lot of racing. It seems the financial crisis is still not over, as it continues to have an effect in the cycling world, and recently hit home somewhat with the team I am part of.  We have not been able to follow the race program that was proposed to us, and the rest of the year we will do our best to rally and get to as many races as possible.  As we all know, that is the nature of cycling, and can be very limited in it's glamour aspect at times!  So we push on.Next up for July is San Rafael twilight crit, Boise Twilight crit, Cascade Classic Stage Race...... oh and 2500 miles in a Van over 18 days....Don't forget to wear your seat belt!Cheers,Cody