Ambulance Ride
Written by Steven Cozza
Friday, 25 February 2005

BELGIUM: It’s been a while since my last update so I thought I would take a little time to share what’s been going on in my life the past few weeks.

With the real races only a few days away I look back at the success of my winter training and preparation for the tough races that lay ahead of me. I would have to say this has definitely been my most successful early season training prep. Besides having some funky knee pain throughout January and a little bit here and there because of IT Band Syndrome I have had no interruptions like I have had in previous years. I also feel as though I can train much harder than ever before being able to do longer hours on the bike without fatiguing as fast as I did in the past. I think part of this is do to maturing more physically and mentally and also being able to focus almost a 100% of my time on my training. This was also the first year where I felt like cycling was what I do like a job rather than a hobby. I would be out on rides in December cruising up highway one along the Tamalas shore and would just break out in a smile. I have never felt so much natural satisfaction from something. The beauty of nature that my eyes are able to see from cycling is great. I really enjoyed the highway one ride because you could be riding and all of a sudden a school of seals would be swimming alongside you or huge pacific white pelicans would be swooshing down into the water picking up fish. I really got in touch with nature this winter making my riding that much more enjoyable.

Ever since I started racing bikes I have always been interested in nutrition and knowing what is healthy for you as an athlete and what is not, so this spring I started taking an online nutrition class. This has been a great help in educating myself more on the issues regarding my nutrition and health as an athlete. Not being in school for the past two years I was craving more responsibility and mind stimulation from doing homework which I actually missed so much oddly enough. I think it was a big shock to my brain to have done 12 years of schooling and than to just stop all of a sudden. That just can’t be good for you so I am slowly getting back into it through online classes. This is really my only option since I am on the road traveling so much being in a class is just not possible for me right now.

Our spring team training camp was held from February 1st till the 22nd. It was a three weeks of hard training along with testing, team photos and trying out new equipment. I was burring myself with a lot of long endurance rides mixed up with some intensity causing me to be so tired that all I was able to do was train and rest. Most of the day was spent on the bike getting in 25 to 30 hours of riding a week. Finally our new Specialized bikes had arrived and we got right to it getting them fit and comfortable to ride. We had a day of team photos where a photographer came out from New York to take really professional shots along with some media and magazine groups like Velo News. So far the bike is just great and has done nothing but impressed me in the first race I did on it Valley of the Sun.

Towards the end of training camp three of us including myself left for the stage race Valley of the Sun held in Arizona every year. Since this race is so early in the year we decided to go to it using the race as a training race to get some speed in our legs before jumping over the pond to Belgium. This was a very short and simple stage race having a Time Trial stage, a Road Race stage and a Criterium to finish off the weekend. I wasn’t expecting much of me in this race since it is still really early and I did not whatsoever train for it. I am always really nervous to do my first Time Trial of the year not knowing how I will feel during the short hard effort. After the TT I had no clue how I did. Since I hadn’t done one since last year I could not tell whether I went fast or slow. I didn’t think I went hard enough. It seemed to me that I wasn’t able to suffer as much as I have been able to in the past but I wasn’t to hard on myself since it was the first one of the year. Later that night I was totally shocked to find out that I was tied for fourth in the TT. I was so surprised and happy at the same time that my form was so good so early in the year without working towards this race. This was a great confidence booster for me right before leaving to Europe. The next day was an 85 mile road race consisting of mostly flat terrain. All day groups would try and break away but seem to never work always being chased down and brought back. With 16 miles to go I attacked on the one bump or hill in the course was caught by three other bridging riders. We worked together the rest of the 16 miles to try and stay away from the chasing peloton until the finish. With 2 miles to go we had about 15 seconds and were going all out. Unfortunately with only 500 meters to the finish line we were caught by the charging field. It was disappointing because I saw how close I was to winning but I was really stoked that I was able to make the effort. I also wasn’t so bummed because one of my teammates from the national team John Murphy than riding for Krystal won the stage in the field sprint. With the last stage being a Crit I new I needed to attack and get away in order to improve my 5th place overall on the general classification. The course ended up being a really fast one making it virtually impossible to get away on your own. It look to be coming down to a field sprint and with three laps to go everyone was fighting for position causing a dangerous and fast crash that I was launched into orbit by. I hit a rider that went down right in front of me and landed right on my head hearing my neck make a snapping sound and than seeing a flash of red before my eyes. I thought this is it I have broken my neck. I amazingly bounced to my feet and finished the last remaining 3 laps with two other riders that went down in the crash. After the race I went over my road rash and could not feel the back of my neck. I decided to go to the race medical tent to get help and they immediately called the ambulance to take me away to the hospital. I really didn’t want to go to the hospital trying to get myself out of it but they insisted telling me what could happen if I did not. Six hours later 2 x-rays and a cat scan I was released with nothing but a whipped lashed neck, road rash and bruises. I was so relieved to be okay since three days from this I was leaving for Europe to start the season. What a day that was. On top of my crazy crash teammate Tyler Farrar than riding for Health Net, won the field sprint making the day a that much better.

Today February 25, I have just arrived to Belgium to start out the season. The plane flight just seems to be getting faster and faster every time I come here so that was nice. Since I had to wake up at 3am to catch the airport shuttle grrrr. I was able to sleep practically the whole flight arriving here in the morning feeling good and able to train right away. The mechanics went right to work in getting all the teams bikes together so we could spin out our stiff plane legs. Right now for the early spring races of March and April there are 8 of us here. Tyler Farrar, Brad Armstrong, John Murphy, John Devine, Michael Wolf, Matt Crane, Kevin Bouchard and Myself. Even though it’s been only the first day we all seem to be supper pumped to start racing and all seem to have great condition to tear up the tarmac.

That’s about it for now. We get ready to do our first race this Sunday. Until than, take car and thanks for reading.

Steven ?

PS: For more photos of me and the rest of the team at camp check out this link: http://www.usacycling.org/gallery/U23_Nat_Team