We rode on and into the desert. Everything looked exactly the same and we couldn’t see more than 2 kilometers down the road because of the sand and dust in the air. I just read in the newspaper this morning that yesterday there were over 120 car accidents because of the dust storm. Can you imagine being on your bike in a dust storm? That would be nuts…

We rolled on and on down the pancake flat terrain and in the middle of the desert, it started to rain. In minutes we were caked in sand. It was as if we had all jumped into the ocean and then decided to roll around on the dry sand afterwards. At first, I was a bit angry to come to such a warm place and then have to ride in the rain, but then I became happy for the people that live here, because water shortage is a huge problem in the Middle East.

We kept riding and then came across a guy riding a road bike too. As it turned out, this guy is a P.E. teacher from California. He’s here teaching in the Doha middle school. What a small world this is. All in all, we did two hard efforts during the ride and did a total of three hours. After riding the TTT circuit that we would be racing 8 kilometers on the next day, we headed back to the hotel for a shower and some lunch.

The food here is good. It’s lots of fluffy jasmine rice, hummus, chicken and lamb.

Unfortunately the cross winds Monday were so harsh that it caused wheels to cross and Steven went down pretty hard with a broken collarbone. But he is in good spirits and ready to start the healing process.

A dramatic day in the desert! It was a very windy day that started at the camel track. We rolled out easy and after 2 km two minor riders took off, so no one chased. The leader jersey’s team let the gap grow and grow until it came to 22 minutes and no one had moved! The leader ‘steam could not decide to chase or not!

So we started to chase, but after a right turn we headed into a strong cross-wind, and ‘it’ hit the fan! The field blew into several groups, but we were well presented in the front. Then in a moment a rider took out Martijn’s front wheel so he and Cozza crashed, which cut Murilo off from front group as well. Cozza left with a broken collar bone.

Now Tyler was the only man in front group with 20 riders. with several teams represented with multiple riders. They stuck together until 8 km to go , when they start the attacks. For Tyler it would have been OK to finish in the front group at same time as the others, even if we didn’t catch the two breakaway riders — hey will lose time anyway this week. But as Tyler was isolated alone he wasn’t able to keep the group together and lost some time to the GC riders. Danny and Murilo came in in the second group.

See the video with Cozza giving his impressions of the ride on Cyclingnews.

Last Sunday I did a ride down in Marin County California that raised money for the Marin Country Day School. It was nice supporting kids along with getting out and doing a fun 50 mile loop with a lot of the local cyclists in the area. I’d say about 200 people came out in support of the school. I’m always happy to help when it comes to supporting kids. I’ve just launched my Race for Kids fan club that you can become a member of by going to my web site: www.stevencozza.com.

After the 50 mile ride we all met back up at the school and ate a really good catered lunch.
I guess I’m on the charity ride circuit right now haha because coming up in the next couple weeks are two other rides.

On November 1 is the Team Swift ride with Champions that I’ll be at along with Scott Nydam and Brent Bookwalter. The is a fundraiser ride and silent auction supporting the junior team I grew up racing with. I always look forward to coming out and supporting this ride along with getting my legs soar being challenged by those youngster team Swift racers. For more info go to www.teamswift.org.

On November 8 I will be at the Norcal Mountain bike leagues fundraiser ride along with JV and Lucas Euser. This ride helps raise money for the Northern California High School Mountain biking League which I raced in as well while in High School. For more info check out. www.norcalmtb.org.

It feels great getting back to training again after my season came to an early stop this year at the end of the Tour of Missouri.

Thanks for reading!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Great job and great ride for David MIllar! Yesterday he was the faster guy in second part of TT and today the team was around him and Dan Martin all day, protecting them for the final climb.

Steven Cozza was there for bottles.Svein Tuft like a body guard for the first 120 kilometers with Dave — Christian Meier and Timmy Duggan with Dan. A total team effort.

Unfortunately for Dan he was not feeling well today, perhaps hypoglycemia…

But for Dave an intelligent race as always, following the good form he has. It is a big result for him and for the team on top of Mont Ventoux! It’s great to see him smiling.

A good job for a good team!

Millar leading the group on the climb.

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 5 results
1. Sylvester Szmyd 4h05.04
11. David Millar +2.28
37. Dan Martin +8.14
42. Timmy Duggan +9.35
60. Tom Peterson +11.38
67. Christian Meier +17.56
126. Svein Tuft +24.55
141. Steven Cozza

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Alejandro Valverde 15h23.17
4. David Millar +1.43
44. Dan Martin +12.33
50. Timmy Duggan +13.22
58. Tom Peterson +16.04
98. Christian Meier +22.38
114. Svein Tuft +26.39
142. Steven Cozza +42.22

Today was not as good of a day as yesterday’s almost-win by David Millar! We decided to be aggressive today except for our TT specialists David, Svein Tuft and Dan Martin, who needed to save their energy for the Ventoux!

It was very fast from the start. Steven Cozza was in the first serious break, our other guys tried also but no luck.

The final break left without us and there were not a lot of other opportunities, so a bit disappointing. But tomorrow is the 42 kilometer TT and Thursday is the famous Mont Chauve, so keep watching!

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage results
1. Niki Terpstra 4h32.34
27. Christian Meier +1.32
63. Tom Peterson
96. Timmy Duggan
106. Dan Martin
115. David Millar
125. Svein Tuft
140. Steven Cozza +10.38
DNF Trent Lowe (ill)

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Niki Terpstra 10h23.45
15. David Millar +1.38
68. Svein Tuft +2.12
72. Tom Peterson +2.13
81. Christian Meier +2.19
85. Dan Martin +2.20
86. Timmy Duggan
135. Steven Cozza +11.23

Today was good… all I can say is ‘Damn’ and ‘Next time!’

After our break was away for 180km and the chasing peloton was within 30 seconds of us with 18km to go I attacked my three other escapees. I held a 30-second gap and was really going flat out but was caught just minutes from the finish line.

It’s a part of cycling and one day it will work out. I told myself from the start of this race that today was my day so it was nice giving it a go and coming close.

Next time….

Mike Friedman says, “I’ll be watching you…”

Race report from Johnny Weltz
Today was a stage that was appropriate for a bunch sprint, as it was descending from the mountains to sea level. But after 10 km Cozza attacked with 3 other riders — they went clear and built up four minutes!

Inevitably from there of the sprinter’s teams started the chase, and kept them in line — and as we approached the 60km to the finish they wanted them back. But they couldn’t get them as easy as expected so more teams joined the chase.

With 15 km to go the gap was 50 second and Cozza attacked the group as they weren’t working well together. He got away easy and from there towards the finish he went faster and faster! In the end five teams were chaseing him and caught him with 3 km to go.

Just a little and he would easy have won the stage! Dan had a good day stayed covered with his teammates in the bunch the whole day, defending his spot on GC.

Today’s prologue was 3.6km and was very explosive. The big favorite Thor took the stick home and another favorite, our own Svein Tuft, ended on the ground on a very technical circuit… as did other favorites today. So our second hope was Steven Cozza who delivered a solid performance and with a couple of seconds would have been right up there.

The good news of the day was that Cozza, our climber and overall contender, only lost 14 seconds in a discipline which isn’t his strongest. And fortunately Svein didn’t heart himself more than some bruises. Tomorrow will change the whole history as we have to hard climbs from the beginning to the end!

Team Garmin-Slipstream, prologue results
1. Thor Hushovd 4.47
25. Steven Cozza +0.06
86. Daniel Martin +0.14
87. Timothy Duggan
107. Mike Friedman +0.17
121. Trent Lowe +0.20
126. Christian Meier
135. Martijn Maaskant +0.21
159. Svein Tuft +0.37

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Thor Hushovd 4.47
25. Steven Cozza +0.06
86. Daniel Martin +0.14
87. Timothy Duggan
107. Mike Friedman +0.17
121. Trent Lowe +0.20
126. Christian Meier
135. Martijn Maaskant +0.21
159. Svein Tuft +0.37