Steven Cozza talks about the sacrifices, benefits of riding for a clean team

Mont Faron, France - Team Slipstream/Chipotle H3O worked together today to put young Australian talent Trent Lowe in position to finish a strong 14th and move up to 3rd overall in the best young rider classification. Lowe is just 29″ off of best young leader Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez and 6″ off second place Remy di Gregorio.

Today’s tough stage was animated by several breaks. Timmy Duggan joined a 12-man break with 55K to go that included then race leader Thor Hushovd. Though the break was caught at the base of the final climb, Team Slipstream/Chipotle rallied to put Lowe in position for the uphill finish.

“The team was great today! Timmy was in an important break and every one did what was asked of them,” said Director Sportif Matt White.

Starting in Saint Cannat and finishing in Marignane, tomorrow’s stage 4 is the Tour Med’s longest day. The 152K stage includes three climbs, one of which is the Col des Portes (631M).

The team rode an almost perfect race today! Timmy (Duggan) got into a strong break (with yellow jersey Hushovd) with about 45K to go and only got caught in the last 3K.

I ended up in awesome position at the foot of Mont Faron with Trent (Lowe) just beside me in the top ten. He rode well, sticking with the best for most the climb. I just rode my own pace and finished pretty strong just behind Ryder (Hesjedal). Three guys in top 23 isn’t bad for such a young team!

Of course personally, I’m a bit disappointed because as always the aim is to win. But hey, if you aim for the bottom, you’re never gonna hit the top.

Tomorrow’s another day. And every day we get stronger.

Editor’s Note: Dan finished a respectable 23rd in today’s hard stage.

Copenhagen, Denmark - Slipstream/Chipotle H3O’s Taylor Phinney couldn’t repeat his L.A. ride during the pursuit qualifier and finished 10th with a time of 4.31.22. Spanish rider Sergi Escobar Roure won with a time of 4.21.13, taking an amazing 11 seconds off his time in L.A. Also representing Slipstream/Chipotle, Mike Friedman finished 15th in the points race qualifier.

Slipstream/Chipotle egos take a back seat on ride to cycling’s grand show

Bicycle.net provides regular updates on Steven Cozza, the 22-year-old Californian out of sunny Petaluma. As last year’s best young rider at the Tour of Missouri, Cozza hopes to play the hometown hero during the Tour of California, February 17-24.

Will Frischkorn kicks off his regular “Fresh Korn” journal for Velonews.com with an eulogy to his recently deceased Blackberry.

“Today’s stage 2 pretty much went as expected with the break getting caught and another massive sprint. The last 30K was really fast and there was a lot of fighting for position. CJ was near the front come the last kilometer, so I guess we did our jobs.”

“That last kilometer could been called a few things. Two kilometers for one example. Nightmare is another good one with like five corners inside the flamme rouge. We all stayed safe though in what was a pretty twitchy group.”

“The general feeling is of optimism for what tomorrow’s hard stage will bring. Everyone seems to have good legs with just Christophe feeling a bit under the weather. It’s gonna be one hell of a fight up Mont Faron (500M) tomorrow. I can’t wait!”