Larry Perera Cycling Diary
Fiordifrutta Cycling Team

Wow so I guess I dropped the ball on keeping you up to date on altoona. I wish I could say that the reason for this was cause we were too busy holding press conferences, dancing with podium girls and trying on the stylish leaders jerseys on in front of the mirror. Stage 3 was a tough one. I came out of it a bit better than last year……made it to the line with svatek, and josh beck in the second group but it took a few hours for my team to knock some sense into me.

The stage began at 1 pm. With a 3 mile climb from the gun. There is always someone who wants to light it up from the gun…today was no exception. Nathan Rouse did good to get in a move for a mile or so and it came back together with the counter staying away for roughly 60 odd miles. The heavy hitters let the group of 5 get up the road cause they figured they could knock off some time on the 2 catergorized climbs of the day. Navigators rode a steady tempo all day….which made things a little easier on the legs. But I swear theres some karma thing going on with this stage and me. I fealt great for the first couple of hours. I ate and drank like a champ….but started feeling tired at the foot of the days major climb up the back side of blue knob. Since we didn’t have anyone in the break Svatek led us into good position into the climb….which was helped by the fact that navigators took a wrong turn…and ended up at the back of the field. Peter hult stayed with the elite group and I dangled off the back and finally settled in with some riders who wanted to kill themselves before the group was big enough to matter.

By the top of the climb we were 2 minutes down on the front group. I was happy with Peter up there and I knew if svatek had any legs left he would catch on the descent like wildfire….which is exactly what happened.

Saturns Aussie Ox Nathan Oneil soloed to a well-earned victory and took over the leaders jersey. Scottie Weis continued to impress me with a podium spot winning the field sprint. Bill pounded some tobasco sauce for 100 dollars which made me feel even sicker. Nothing exciting happened up at the Blue Knob Resort night except for the saturn team’s box truck’s alarm system going haywire throughout the night.

Stay tuned for stage 4.