Pretty in Pink
Written by Steven Cozza
Thursday, 26 August 2004

Capri France 1.13 8-21-04

After nearly seven hours of driving to our destination in France the team finally had arrived to our living place for the night. It look like a medieval castle but was actually a boys boarding school. After pre riding the next days time trial course in the pouring rain we dried off and got ready for our cafeteria style dinner. The food was god offal but what can you expect when it comes to race food in Europe. The meals usually consist of lots of French bred and soggy over cooked pasta. This is not very nutritious so as you can imagine we all carry our multi-vitamins every where we go to make sure we get all the vitamins we need. Being very tired from the days travel it did not take me long to fall asleep once the French teams turned off there crappy French rap music that they were blaring down the hall from us. I had nothing but good dreams that night dreaming about riding with Pro Cyclist George Hincapie. I was all ready to go for the mornings time trial of 6.7 k. The course consisted of 4 k of flat terrain and than the last 2.7 of climbing to the finish. Since this was a short TT I mad sure to get a good warm up. After warming up for nearly an hour it was my time to take it to the line. For the first half of the race I felt no pain whatsoever and felt completely comfortable. With just the climb left I was feeling great but started to hurt a bit on the climb. I drove as hard as I could because I new in this short of a TT that every second counts. I crossed the finish line in 10:13 not that bad of a time but later found out that it was good enough to get me a second place behind the winner who road it in 10:03. I was quite happy with this result but new I needed to recover as best as possible for the later day's race of 125 k. Since I came in 2nd I was called to the podium to receive the young leaders jersey witch was a competition for riders under 21 years of age. With my luck the jersey just had to be hot pink. Ugh what a color I hate pink but had to wear it in the later race of the day. The next stage was only 125 k road race so I new it would be fast from the gun. I raced so strong the whole race and felt like I could win the overall leaders jersey by the end of the day so with 20k to go I attacked with 2 other riders and had a lead of over 45 seconds on the field but were caught with only 10 k to go. I had blown my engine and taken a chance for victory but it didn’t go my way. The last 10k I did my best to limit my losses but ended up losing the pink jersey and just finishing. This race was a great learning experience and I will know how to race better now in this position. So far the legs have been going good and with nearly a month left in the season I hope to continue the feeling good streak. I leave for a race again in France for a 3 day stage race so until than, thanks for reading. I will report on that race if all goes well…
Soon there will be pictures of me and the pretty podium girls in my gallery

Steven

The Final Push
Written by Steven Cozza
Tuesday, 17 August 2004

Going into this season my greatest goal of all was to win the time trial at nationals and to place top 5 in the road race. Things didn’t go such as planned though so I had to realistically change my goals after getting really sick with a sinus infection the month before Nationals. In July witch was suppose to be the most important month for my build up to Nationals (August 12-13) ended up being the worst month of the season for me. I ended up having to take two full weeks off the bike and the next two pretty easy on the bike. This was very hard for me to deal with knowing that it would be much more difficult for me to reach my goals. I did everything in my being to get ready. I pretty much just road and slept, trained and slept. With only two weeks of pretty good training in my legs the time trial was finally at my feet in Utah on Antelope Island in the Salt Lake. I made sure to pre-ride the course as many times as possible for me to know how to pace myself during the 36 kilometer course. I kept telling myself that all I can do is my best and to not worry if my goal was not met. I even set new goals towards the end of the season to have a great month of racing in September when I new I would be coming back into great form. Since it was so hot I decided not to warm up to long for the time trial. I went up to the start ramp to wait for my time and was off before I new it. The whole race I was fighting the mental battle within myself telling me to slow down because I was hurting. My body was telling me to ease up because it wasn’t use to that kind of intensity but I kept on denying the thoughts and raced on as hard as I could. With 5 k to go I started cramping a bit but ignored all signs of pain. Finally I came to the line and put in a last minute sprint to the finish coming in 4th place. I was pretty disappointed about not winning or putting in a better time but I was very pleased with how I did after being so sick just prior to nationals. After crossing the finish line my left gluteus muscle cramped up so bad that I couldn’t even pedal with my left leg. Later that night I was able to get a massage and took a warm bath in order to loosen up the tight muscle. All I could do was pray that I would be feeling better for the 120 mile road race to come the next morning.

The morning of the road race had arrived and I was feeling a lot better but still had a really soar left but muscle. I decided to start the race but told my parents to drive the car to the course just incase something happened where I needed to end my race early. Since the course was 120 miles in the open Utah dessert on hilly terrain they started us at 7 am in the morning. It was definitely difficult getting up at 4:30 am to eat a pre race meal but in order to have enough fuel throughout the 5 hour race I made sure to eat as much as I could. After breakfast my support crew (parents) drove me the 7 miles to the race start. I could tell that people were still asleep at the start of the race for no one really warmed up much before the race began. We all just kind of huddled together before the starting line just trying to stay warm. The gun sounded and we were off with a dash. All I could really think about was how much I couldn’t wait for the sun to rise over the 10 foot mountains ahead of us. I new that this race was not going to stay together for long and that a break of 6-15 racers would get away. I decided to go a little hard at the front on the first climb in order to warm my muscles up. After defrosting my bones and muscles I actually started to feel quite good. The whole first lap I decided to do little attacks. At the bottom of the first descent I put in an attack and another rider followed. This one actually worked and no one bothered to chase except for a motorcycle official accused us of crossing the center line and told us we needed to hit our breaks and get to the back of the pack. I protested for awhile and than decided it was not worth the energy. The worst part of it all is just nearly 2 minutes after we were sent back the break of 6 that would stay away for the hole day took off. I was so pissed that I missed it. All the strong teams were represented in the break so I new that it most likely would maintain its lead. All I could do now was race my ass off and not just sit in like everyone else seem to be doing. I wasn’t about to see my nationals disappear right under my feet so on the second lap I decided to start attacking the field of racers again. There was a very strong chase group of 3 riders about a minute up the road so my goal was to bridge up to them. I tried many times but the field would just not let me go. Finally after what seemed like the hundredth attack I got away. I flew to the chasing group of 3 and as soon as I could catch my breath began to help them in pursuit of catching the now lead group of 11 riders 4 minutes up the road. As we came into the 3rd lap we began to catch riders from the front group who could just not hold the pace. With only 30 miles to go the group we were chasing had only had 6 guys in it and I new I had a great shot of a top ten if not top five finish. I was so stoked so I kept on driving with the guys in my group. With only one climb to go and only about 7 miles left the chasing peloton behind us was only 45 seconds down and the group of 6 we were chasing was only a minute ahead. Timmy a buddy of mine told me to hang on his wheel the last climb. He put in a strong effort and I did my best to hang on but my best wasn’t enough. He managed to bridge up to the 6 guys up the road and I was stranded in no mans land by myself. With about 6 miles to go I was caught by the remaining field of what seem to have only been 30 racers.

After being caught all I cared about now was just making it to the finish. I took my chance this race and I am so glad I did. It’s just how it goes in road racing. Sometimes a hard brave effort will work and sometimes it won’t but I much rather take the chance than not race and just sit in. After crossing the finish line with a big smile on my face because of just being happy I finished I later found out that Timmy who I had been in the break with the whole day came in 3rd place. After finding that out I smiled for him but frowned for myself for I knew that if I could have went with him on the last climb I would of top 5 placed most likely. Ugggg, oh well what can you say. After going into the race not knowing if I would finish because of a sore but muscle and lack of physical endurance I was so proud of how I race.

With nationals over and really only about two months left of the season I am already back in Belgium. The final push of the season has began. I am really mentally focused and mentally motivated on doing well here in September to finish off the racing year strong. I couldn’t believe it just the first night being here I was woken many time in the night by the craziest rain storm I ever have witnessed. I thought I was in a really bad dream until I found out in the morning that it was in fact a real storm. Well that’s Belgium for you. What would it be without the crummy weather and the most dangerous races on earth? All be racing this week in a time trial in France on Saturday and a road race on Monday. Thanks for reading and all the support. I hope your year has been going as smoothly as mine has. As the season nears I try not to get to distracted but I have to be honest about how much I can’t wait to come home and see my friends. The off season for me will be a great time to reflect on the racing season and hang up my bike for awhile and do normal things in an everyday life with my buddies. I miss them all.

Until next time,
Peace in the Middle East,
Steven Cozza ?

PS: If you get a chance you should check out the new photos I have added to my gallery since nationals.