No Flash in Pan : Former Chicken Farmer Cody Has Become Cycling’s Hot Wing

In the winter of 1992, Tom Cody--surfer, motocross racer and tennis player from Topanga Canyon--discovered the harsh realities of European bicycle racing.

Cody lived and worked on a chicken farm, sorting eggs and helping sheep give birth, as part of his daily chores with a Dutch cycling team.

“They think you have to work . . . to show you what you could be doing and would be doing if you don’t succeed in cycling,” Cody said. “You see why European cyclists are more successful than Americans, because it’s a hard life.”

Although Cody has grown up in more comfortable surroundings, he has adopted such a work ethic to become one of the Southland’s best sprinters.

Cody is the stepson of Bruce McNall, owner of the Kings, and lives in McNall’s guest house in Bel-Air while competing in this country.

“It was different for us to think that someone (in the family) would play sports rather than manage it,” said Jane McNall, Tom’s mother.

A professor at USC, she was not exactly enamored of Cody’s proposition to drop out of USC to race bicycles three years ago.

“I got a contract, so I opted for money instead of doing the conformist grind at USC,” he said. “I can’t resist the action.”

Cody said his stepfather, a mover and shaker in the sports world, helped allay Jane McNall’s fears. Now, she endorses it wholeheartedly.

“What he is learning in cycling is every bit as good for his future as what he would learn in college,” she said.

Cody, 23, has chosen a circuitous route to professional bicycling. Most of his competitors started in their pre-teens, but the Palisades High graduate did not race until he was 18.

“There are all these kinds of freak mutants (in racing),” Cody said of the early starters.

Cody, one of three amateurs who form Spago’s team, hopes the late start will help him remain strong enough to compete eventually in major stage races such as the Tour de France.

For now, he is satisfied to also be the No. 5 rider for the L.A. Wings, appropriately enough for a onetime chicken farmer.

Cody and the Wings will compete for the National Cycle League title Sunday in Pittsburgh. The Wings, Pittsburgh and London advanced to the league championship round by winning conference titles during the summer season. A four-team playoff race today in Pittsburgh will determine Sunday’s fourth competitor.

The 11-team league is to cycling what indoor soccer is to World Cup soccer--a drastically altered form of the sport. Five-rider teams compete on a one-kilometer street course for 36 laps. Points are awarded every three laps for the first five cyclists. The final lap is worth double points.

This type of racing suits sprinters such as Cody who are willing to elbow and shove their way into position on the point laps. The event is not made for road racers such as Miguel Indurain and Greg LeMond.

“It’s very fast,” said John Brady, a onetime Irish Olympian who leads the Wings. “Things happen at an accelerated rate. You have to have your wits about you. There’s a certain internal intensity. Tom has that.”

If Cody is lacking anything, it is experience. That is why the small-scale league is ideal for him. He races veterans who no longer ride the world circuit, but know all the tricks.

“I like the treacherous part of racing,” Cody said. “I don’t necessarily like to crash, but I’m not shy about slamming elbows when it comes down to the sprints.

“Without the danger factor, it would be boring. I thrive on it. I have the scars to prove it.”