Larry Perera Cycling Diary
Fiordifrutta Cycling Team

So stage 6 could be arguably the toughest stage of the whole race. We did a 20 mile-ish circuit through altoona with lost of fun twists and turns….and enough climbing to make the legs start to feel 6 days of racing. Then We raced back through the start finish and out towards Blue Knob for the4 mile Ascent of the ski area where we had been staying……and then 2 more “categorized climbs” followed by a long descent back to altoona.

The race began early so we were up at 4:30 even before the saturn team mechanicshad managed to set off their team truck’s alarm for the 19th time. We packed up the cars said our good byes to our condo and headed to the start. I got the opportunity to roll around a bit drink some coffee and get a chance to see how my legs felt. They were Ok. So the starting gun went off, and I went off as well. A sierra nevada guy followed me and we had a descent gap by once again teams were chasing for no reason. There were non stop attacks untill the Sprint leader flatted and a Time Out was called untill he got back in. People looked like they were tired from the early activity and possibly the mile grind uphill half-way through the first lap so I gunned it down a small hill and opened up a gap and kept on going. Tactically this was an OK move at best but I really wanted to try and get through town alone win the sprint and have a chance at getting to blue knob with a little lead so maybe I could make it over with out waving goodbye to the real race action. I had nearly a minute but then snow valley whipped their train into action and I got caught 1500 meters from the line. The field was totally strung out…..so they musthave hit it pretty hard. But why I wasn’t a threat to the green jersey……and the dude who had the jersey didn’t win the sprint (I don’t think)

Anyway right after the sprint the break of the day went and I never saw them again. They had nearly 5 minutes when they reached blue knob. Svatek made a coontrolled pull out at the fead zone b4 blue knob so everyone one else needed to keep racing in case we would find ourselves in the position to help peter out. As soon as the road went up saturn attacked and I never really saw them again. Knowing the climb fairly well I rode steady and stayed with a large group for the climb…got a coke at the top and waited for josh to catch up and then shared a bit of work through the remaining 40 miles. Even though we were out of contention people were still racing attacking getting a gap…..putting their heads down and thinking they would get away. Do these people not realize that when the laughing group sees a rider trying to escape they would rather chase them down, totally crack and get dropped forever than have someone get the glory of finishing 56th? Obviously they havent read Adam Hodges Myerson’s Bike.com article about riding in the Bus! I still don’t understand this mentality. I got through the race well…..had some good conversations….and was glad to cross the finish line knowing that the race was over for 2003, but hopefully I would be back next year….and maybe I could pull off a result now that I had finished the race.

Tom Danielson continued his early season dominance and took over the leaders jersey for good. Navigators won the day, and Peter finished with the main front group on the road. We packed up the bikes and took a quick shower lunched it at the olive garden where I endulged on the “perpercini’s” (don’t ask) …..I found out I was gonna race in NYC the next day so we tried to get to NYC as fast as possible so we could get a quick meal and get some real sleep.

Thanks for being patient.
lp