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Editor’s Note: Cody Campbell is a 20-year-old pro rider from Surrey, B.C. He’s racing for the Trek-LiveSTRONG U-23 team this season under the leadership of Axel Merckx and Lance Armstrong. Campbell, who was the 2008 national time trial champion, will be blogging about his racing for us this season.

April is now done and I am well into my second season with the Trek-Livestrong U23 Team Presented by Radioshack and when I say “well into” I mean it. There is still a lot of racing to be done this year, but already eight of my teammates and I have contested the Tour of Qatar and the Tour of Oman. Both of these were by far the biggest races I have done and besides giving me some early season fitness they provided a platform to learn a lot about racing my bike.  

We arrived in Qatar a few days early to get used to the 11-hour time change, none of us minded though as our hotel, the Ritz Carlton Doha, was the nicest building I’ve ever been in, let alone lived in for 10 days. As other racers arrived, they were quick to point out that race hotels don’t get much better than that. Seeing the quality of the riders in the hotel only magnified our nerves leading up to the race. We knew it was going to be tough and it was. The first few days of racing were absolute war. Not only did we have to fight the constant winds of Qatar but we also had to fight for every inch of road in a very nervous peloton. For a young group of guys, we proved we were there to race like everyone else. Taylor Phinney posted two Top 10s in the bunch kicks and we had a guy in the break almost every day. We returned home after two hard weeks of racing with a lot of confidence that will hopefully be carried and built upon throughout the year.  

For me the next few months look like this: A trip across the pond this month and in June to contest the Olympia’s Tour in Holland, U23 Paris-Roubaix and the German Stage Race Thüringen Rundfahrt. From Europe, it will be directly to Edmonton for Road Nationals and then a bit of time at home to get ready for the last half of the season.

Cody Campbell is a Surrey, B.C. native riding for the Trek-Livestrong U23 team this season.